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Contents 



Bom to Trouble 


1 


Deserter and Philanthropist 


2 


Freeuooter and Fiiimister 


t 
3 


n J 1 1 1 1 1 /—I 1 

Stellaland and Goshen 


4 


Gunrunner and I.D,B. Merchant 


5 


Cattle Liiter and Horse Thiei 


6 


Pranks and Escapades 


7 


Robm Hood of die Veld 


S 


No jail can Hold Him 


9 


Stand aiid Deliver 


10 


King of the Kalahai i 


11 


Confidence Trickster 


12 


The Desert War 


13 


Tlie Good Samaritan 


14 


Scout and Intelligence Agent 


15 


Bushman Bones 


16 


Kalaliaii Guide 


17 


The Last Campaign 


18 


The End of tfie Trail 


19 



This oiif G'id i'ldnf ]ihi'ii''^iu)ih of Stolt'j ^nn'f^i iLdtf liiheii 

uiiihi'witi. pi'riTiitli lyl ^colty '■•iiitlh i-i exiilcuce ujji? icnx 
used bu Penitti Miliar aa the bona fw^er oU poiiifoig an 

ft il I I iiriii imTm 



Acknowledgments And Bibliography 

I SHOULD like to thank all those who have assisted me in my researches into Scotty Smith's 

hi&'toiy, aiid in paiticiilai' Mr A. H. Martin, Town Clerk of Perth, Scotland; Miss E. M. Shaw, 
Ethnologist of the South-African Museum; and the librarian and staff of the South-African Public 

Libraiy. 

I am also greatly indebted to the following for supplying me with infonnalion u^ed in the 
compilation of this work: Major C.A. Anderson, D.S.O.., of Marandellas, Southern Rhodesia; Mr F. 
Baker of Durban; Mrs F. C. Barnard of Kuniman: Mrs A. Beet of Rondebosch: Miss M. A. Beet, Mr G. 
Bergh, Mr L. Moult, Mrs C. Schutz and Mr B.F. van Vreeden of Kimberley; Mr S. J. Botha of Prieska; 
Mr F. Bouwer, Mrs J. Daly and Mr CP. St Quintm of Vryburg; Mr F. Buchheimer of Sea Point; Mr 
J.H. Burke of Brandhout; Mr J.C. Butler of Uitenh^e; Mr A.C. Cormack of Vasco; Mr J.W. Coraiack 
of Maclear; Mr H.J.E. Dumbi ell, C.B.E., of Pietennaritzburg; Mr W.V. Eadie of Beuoni; Mrs E. Gerber 
of Sea Point; Mr F. Greeff of C^e Town; Mr J. Hope of Stilcom; Mrs F.E. Huggett of East London; 
Mr F. Inggs of Douglas; Mrs A.E. Lawrie of Banhoek; Mr J. Lutz of Lutzville; Mr J, Malcolm of Green 
Point; Mr C. Mason of Grootvlei; Mr C. McCleland of Thomhill; Mrs G.M. Moir and Mr G. Brooke of 
Piketberg; Mr G. Pai'ker of Maiienburg; Mr J. Pi eller of Leadmine; Mrs F. Solomon of Kenilworth, 
C^e; Mr H. Steyn of Springs; Mrs M. Swanepoei of St Helena, Col W.H.C. Taylor and Lt-Col E.W. 
Woon, D.S.O., M.C, of East London; Mr and Mrs P.B. Thompson of Bloemfontein Ranch, Upington; 
Ml- R.W. Thornton, C.M.G., C.B.E., of Bathurst, Cape; Major G. Tylden, E.D., of Newbury, England; Mr 
S.J. van Rooyen of Ennelo; Mr G.D.B. Williams of Johannesburg and Mr G. Wilson of Roodepoort. 

In addition, I am grateful to the following for permission to quote from works of vdiich they hold the 
copyright: Mrs V.B. Longworth and Mrs F. Rogaly of Port Elizabeth: Trader on the Veld, by their 



fallier, Albert Jackson, (as told to E, Rosenllial); A.A. Balkema, Cf^e Town, 1953. H. Klein : Stage 
Coach Dust; Thomas Nelson & Sons Ltd., Edmbiiigh. 193"^. Faber Fabei% Ltd. London: Matabele 
Thompson, (Ed. N. Rouillard), 1936. The Hutchinson Publishing Ghoup: Forty Years in Africa, by 
M^or T. G. Trevor, (Hurst & Blackett, London, 1932). 

OTHER SOURCES 
A. Books 

Addison, A C and Matthews, W H. , A Deathless Story, Hutchinson, London, 1906. 
Baumann, G. and Bright, E., The Lost Republic; Faber & Faber, London, 1940. 

Blackburn, D, and Caddell, Capt W. W., Secret Service in S outh- Africa; Cassell, London, 

19 11 

Blackburn, D., Prinsloo o fPrinsloosd orp, Alston Rivers, Ltd , 1908. 

Boyce, D., Illustrated Africa, North, Tropical, South, Rand McNally, Chicago & New York, 
1 925 

Broome, H. A , The Log o f a Rolling Stone; T. Wernher Laurie, London, 1912. 
Colvin, I , Life o f Jameson; Edward Arnold & Co., London, 1922. 
Dennison, Major C. G., Stellaland; Pretorius Bros , Vryburg, 1928 

Everleigh, W . Sou'.h-West Africa, T Maskew Miller, Cape Town. 1915 
Hastings, Major L , Dragons are Extra, Penguin Boo!-:s. Harmond^wcirth. 1947 
Mackensie, J , Austral Africa, Sampson, Low, ^^I^rston, Seaxle & Rivington, London, 1 887. 
Nathan, M., South-Africa from Within, John Murray, London, 1926. 



Ronan, B , Forty S outh- African Years, Heath Cranton, London, 1 923. 
Tomlinson, L. L , Geskiedkundige Swellendam; Nasionale Pers, Kaapstad, 1943: 
Walker, E. A., A Modern History for S outh- Africans, Maskew Miller, 1927. 

B. Pamphlets 

S.A. Bound , Pamphlets Boshof CiTcuit Court 19 March 1885. Smith (Bcotty) and others. 

G. Newspapers and Magazines 

Anonymous, Kind Deed Done by South- African Scarlet Pimpernel. Sunday Times, 29 
December 1 940 

Beet, G., The S outh- African Robin Hood. Cape Argus, 11 September 1926. 
Carruthers, H., Highwayman Extraordinary. 18 Sl 25 March, 1 & 8 April 1956. 

du Toit, Dr J. J., Die Ridderlike Rower van die Noord-Weste. Huisgenoot, 18 February 

1957 

"Rand Pioneer" and "Early Pioneer", Letters Sunday Times, 12 & 26 January 1941. 
Fincham, E A , S outh- Afric a' s Robin Hood Sunday .Times, 31 October 1948 
Hooper, K E. L., Turpin of the B order. Cape Argus, 14 June 1947. 
Judd, Col B. C, With the Cape Riflemen and some others. Nongqai, July 1938. 
Karlson. C: H., When a Girl ran Guns into Pondoland. Star, 31 May 1930. 

Klein, H , The Man who Saved Botha's Life. Cape Argus, 27 January 1940. Stage Coaches 
will roll again Outspan, 10 August 1951. 

Levinson, O , The South West Africa Problem. Cape Times, 15 July 1901. 



St Leger, F. L., Interview. Cape Times, 19 October 1932 

Scheepers, H. J., 3 cotty Smith TydskrifvirVolkskunde en Volkstaal, May 1951. 
South-African Illustrated News, 2(3 September & 20 December 1884, 21 February 18B5 
Speight, W.L , Exciting Stage Coach Days in South-Africa. 1820 Magazine, August 1 956. 

Standard and Diggers News 3\ October, 1 November 1895 

Standard and Transvaal Llir.ing Chronicle. 24 March 1 888 Stewart, C. L , Scotty Smith as 
Seen by His Wife. Cape Argus, 24 December 1 932. 

When Scotty Returned a Kind Deed. Cape Argus, 24 December 1932. 

Trew, Lt-Col H F , Romance of the North-West Border. Nongqai, December 1943 

Tylden, Major G., 3 outh- Africa's Bad Man, Scotty Smith. Star, 15 June 1 929. 

The Pseudonym "S cotty Smith' in Sou th -Africa. Af ricana Notes and News, Vol 8, March 
1951 and Vol. 13, June 1958 



Foreword 



Th ere are a good many inconsistencies in Scotty Smith's life and CRieer, a state of affairs for Miiich 

he himself is laigely to blame. He was a bom raconteur and in his old age he fell into the veiy human 
failing of always presenting hi^' adventures in their most favoui'able and ilattering light. Nor did he always 
stick to the same version when describing a paiticulai' event. 

His chronicles have proved equally inconsistent. Apart from investing him with a militaiy commission, 
^^ich he never possessed, they have assigned him to a variety of overseas regiments; whereas the only 
definite iiifonnatioii we have in this regard is that he was probably a trooper for a short time in a cavalry 
regiment and undoubtedly setved in the ranks of a Highland regiment in India. 

Many of the stories about Scotty have grown with the years. Some in fact ai'e so fantastic that it has 
been found impossible to include them in this book. There is, for example^ the account of how Scotty 
once esc^ed &om the Bloemfontein gaol, impersonated the Free State President, ^propriated his 
ceremonial coach, rode in state to the Raac^zaal, and then slipped back into prison, without his jailers even 

realising that he had temporai'ily deseited them. 

Other anecdotes of this type include Mr P.X B^eman's description of how Scotty and some of his 
friends agreed to sleep in a deserted farm house in the Kimberley district in order to lay the ghost ^^ich 
was reputed to be haunting the building, only to be ignominiously routed by a young farmer who 
successfiilly impersonated the fe'pecti al visitor; or William Boyce's recital of the occasion on wliich the 
outlaw, hard pressed by a mounted policeman, jumped on a pet ostrich and made good his esc^e. The 
well-known South-African author, Douglas Blackburn, has also written some delightful fictional 
reminiscences about Scotty's duels with Transvaal ofElcialdom, the most famous of vdrich is his 



humorous description of how the outlaw got the better of Piet Prinsloo, the notorious Landdrost of 
Vrededorp. 

On his various expeditions, Scotty often disguised his identity by using aliases such as Swaitz, 
Fmcham. Piet Coetzee. Olivier. George Smith and Yetty Smith. Sometimes these were adopted fioin 
members of his gang. The real Swaitz, for example, was a one-time associate of Scotty^s, who operated 
mainly in the Ladybrand District, and in many ways emulated his more famous friend and former 
partner. 

In addition a number of other desperadoes are kno\ra to have traded on Scotty's reputation, and to 
have used his pseudonym in order to inspire terror in the hearts of their victims. In any case, "Scotty 
Smith" is a very handy ^petlation and more than one South-African outlaw forestalled Gordon Lennox 
in its use. 

One of the first of these was the Swellendam Scotty Smith, "^ose name is closely associated with 
the building of Bain's Kloof. Another was' an unusual character, who operated as a horse-thief, cattle- 
rustler and gaolbreaker in the Transkei, and ran guns from Pondoland into Zululand as a sideline; and 
fmally there was Spiero Smith alias Scotty Smith, v/ho was arrested in 1895 by the Transvaal police at 
Doomfonteyn, and sentenced to a fine of £10 or a month's hajd labour on chaiges of damage to 
government property and resisting arrest. He may or m^ not have been Gordon Lennox himself 

There is also a great deal of controversy about Scotty's birthplace, origin and early upbringing. 

Scotty always maintained that his real name was George St Leger Gordon Lennox and that he was 
bom in Perth in 1845. This claim to kinship with one of Scotland's most illustrious families is 
corroborated to some extent by v\^at h^pened to him during the Indian Campaign of 1864-65, and by 
the testimony of various people ^^o knew him during his later years. 



On the other hand, my own researches have convinced me that "^^ile Scotty was undoubtedly well 
connected, his pretensions to legitimate relationship with the Gordon Lennox family and to the fact that 
his birthplace was Perth are difficult to substantiate. Obviously, if these claims have any validity, some 
record of a man bearing so illustrious a name would have been preserved in the neighbourhood ^lere he 
was bom and educated. But although at my request the Town Clerk of Perth consulted various reference 
books and made certain other investigations, he drew a complete blank. 

"As you will no doubt be awaie," he wrote to me. "Gordon Lennox is the family name of the Dukes of 
Richmond and Gordon, and so far as I can asceitain they have no family connections in Perth or 
PerAshir^." 

In support of this conclusion, I may add that M^or G. Tylden, who compiled the first comprehensive 
bibliography of Scotty Smith and did a good deal of intensive research into his life and career, has 

iiifonned me that. "Years ago a friend of mine, who knew the Gordon Lennox family we!K a&'ked them if 
they could trace any account of anyone of the kind having had any connection with the family. But, 
although they were interested and quite willing to help, tiie answer was in the negative. They knew 
absolutely nothing about Scotty 

To-day Scotty Smith is such a legendary figure that it is extremely difficult to deteiiuine to what extent 
his vaiious escapades have been exaggerated and dramatised. Described by vai'ious wi'iters as the 
uncrowned King of the Kalahai i, the Robin Hood of the Veld or the Obtain Starlight of the Frontier, 
there is no doubt thai his exploits and ingenious enterprises have become an integral part of our history. 
His actual adventures were, in fact, so daring, so skilfully contrived and so cleverly executed that he 
deserves to rank with a Dick Turpin, a Ned Kelly or a Jesse James in the rogues' gallery of the world's 
most picturesque and cunning gentlemen of the road. 



FC METROVICH : 1962 
Author of 

The Development of Higher Education in Soudi-A&ica, 1873-1927 
Assegai over the Hills 
The Valiant But Once 



Chapter One 



Born To Trouble 

During the course of its troubled history, 
South-Area's noithem frontier has produced 
many bad men who have defied the ordinaiy 
couveutian^ and been a law unto themselves. But 
not one of these adventurous rogues and 
desperadoes has achieved the lasting fame or 
notoriety of Scotty Smith. Cattle-rustler and 
horse -thief, highw^man and outlaw, secret 
service agent and patriot, I.D.B. trafficker and 
confidence trickster, soldier of foitiine and half a 
dozen other things besides, Scotty was loved and 
feared and hated throughout tiie border districts 
for nearly three decades. 

In the best highwayman tradition he is always 
a loyal friend but a bitter enemy. He invaiiably 
robs the rich and befriends the poor. His quixotiy 
endears him to the ordinary country folk, wdio 
never fail to protect and shield him ^^en he is on 
the nm. He is full of cunning plots and 
stratagems. He is a master of disguise. He is 



ubiquitous and frequently turns up in the most 
unlikely places. He has the gift of vanishing 
almost at will, when hard pressed by the minions 
of the law, and no jail can hold him for long. He 
is as elusive as the Scarlet Pimpernel, and as 
daring as Brigadier Geiraid. Moreover his vast 
and intimate knowledge of the tenain in which 
he operates, stands him in good stead on 
numerous occasions. 

In his time he plays many parts. One of these 

is to appear as the confidant of some rich, 
unsuspecting farmer, who loudly proclaims how 
he will deal with the notorious Scotty Smith, 
should that miscreant ever cross his path only 
subsequently to discover that his best stock or 
fmest horses have disappeared and that the 
plausible stranger and the celebrated outlaw are 
one and the same person. 

His favourite role, however, is that of the 
sympathetic traveller, who befriends and protects 
the lonely widow. She always ^parently lives 
on an isolated farm and is in constant dread that 
her cattle will be raided and she will be ruined by 



the terrible bandit and lawbreaker. But invariably 

wlieo Scotty does eventually appeal' on the 
scene, her fears are proved groundless and she 
becomes one of his stoutest champions and 
defenders. 

Who was this man, vfho achieved the rare 
distmctioii of becoming a legend during \ih own 
lifetime? The story which follows is based on the 
description of his youth and early adventures, 
^^ich Scotty himself subsequently gave to some 
of his best fiiends. 

His real »aine. he said, was George St Leger 
Gordon Lennox, and he was the eldest son of a 
Perthshire land owner. His father was fairly well 
off and provided him with a good education. 
This included courses in land surveying and 
veterinary science, both of which were to stand 
him in good stead in his fiiture career in South- 
Africa. Gordon Lennox's prospects were very 
promising but from his earliest days he showed 
signs of the restless spirit ^^ich was soon to 
make him forsake his fatherland for ever, and 
seek a new home across the seas. 



When he was eighteen years of ^e he joined 

a cavahy regiment and while training an incident 
occurred which illustrates both his imperious 
temper and his masterly horsemanship. One day 
his troop was exercising its horses on the beach 
neai' Abei deen. Scotty was riding a high-spiiited 
mount which obstinately refused to enter the 
water. At last, his patience exhausted, he decided 
to teach his recalcitrant steed a lesson. Turning 
round he rode back to where the sand was fairly 
soft. Then he deliberately waited his opportunity. 
The next time the horse reared and tried to 
Huseat him he hurled himself out of the saddle, at 
the same moment giving the reins a violent jerk, 
^^ich threw the animal neatly over on its back. 

Shortly after this event the regiment was 
posted overseas and the future Scotty Smith 
found himself on his way to India. TTrere he took 
part in the intermittent frghting which was being 
waged on the North -West Frontier. Many 
accounts of his career state that he held 
commissioned rank. Tliere is, however, no 
official record of this, and it is much more 



probable that he was attached to his regiment as 
a farrier or veterinary surgeon. 

In aiiy case his Indian serace wa^" shoit-lived. 
During the Umbeyla Campaign of 1864-1865, he 
gave the fn^t indications of the genius he had for 
getting into trouble. A skirmish had taken place 
in the hills and the officer in charge of the small 
British force had been killed. The retreat was 
sounded but Gordon Lennox, ignoring this, 
assumed command and ordered the men to 
chaige. They readily responded and siicceeded in 
reaching their objective, but suffered fairly 
heavy casualties in the process. As a result their 
leader was court-marshalled and cashiered for 
disobeying orders. 

He himself claimed that his uncle wa,s the 
commander-in-chief of the aimy. I have been 
unable to verify this. It is an undoubted fact, 
however, that the Duke of Cambridge did 
actually inteivezie on his behalf. As a result the 
enquiry was reopened, the verdict was set aside, 
and he was reinstated. But this experience of red 
t^e convinced the young man that the army was 



no place for him. He therefore secured his 

dischai'ge and returned home, much to the 
delight of his father vAio wanted him to settle 
down, and thought that the best way to ensure 
this would be to get him safely married. In 
addition the old Scot had another object in view. 
His landowning neighbour had no sons, only 
daughters. By arranging a match between young 
Gordon Lennox and this man's eldest daughter 
he hoped to unite the two estates. 

In Iiirtherance of this plan he summoned his 
son to the library one day and told him bluntly 
^^at he had decided. Gordon Lennox, however, 
had other ideas. 

"I'm very sony, father," he said, "but I cannot 

do it." 

Angered by this rank insubordination the 
Laii'd issued an ultimatum. "Either you carry out 
my wishes," he declared, " or V\\ disinherit you." 

He expected this time-honoured threat to have 
the desired effect. Instead his son looked sullenly 
at him. 



"I cannot do it," he repeated. 

"Very well, my boy," his father replied, 'TU 
give you ten d^s to make up your mind." 

On the tenth day the old man was reading in 
the library w!ieii hi&" i^on entered aiid the follow- 
ing ter&^e but dramatic inteniew took place: 

"Well George, have you decided?" 

"Yes, fathei." 

"Are you agreeable to doing what I want?" 

"No, sir. I'm sorry but..." 

" Then you're no longer a son of mine. You 
may go." George St Leger Gordon Lennox 
walked defiantly out of the room, and that was 
the last time he spoke to his parent or had any 
other communication with him. Shaking the dust 
of his native country ofThis feet, and not caring 
very much where he went, he boarded a ship 
sailing for Australia. 

Tliife" is Scotty's personal account of how he 
came to leave Scotland, and it was subsequently 



corroborated in a most unexpected manner by a 

woman member of the old laird's household 
staff, who had immigrated to South-A&ica. One 
day she met a man, v^o h^pened to be a great 
fiiend of Scotty's. When she discovered this she 
told him that she had actually been present 
during the fateful intei'view between Scotty and 
his father. According to her stoiy she was sitting 
unobtrusively in aii alcove in the libraiy doing 
some needlework, when Scotty came in and she 
heai'd eveiy word that wa-s spoken. 

There are, however, numerous other versions 
of the event n4iich led to Scotty's abandoning his 
homeland 

One of the more fanciful is that as a young 
man he joined the army and was drafted to 
Portugal. While serving there he fell in love with 
a beautiful Portuguese girl of high rank, "^^o was 
also being courted by a Portuguese officer. A 
bitter feud developed between the two men and 
Scotty's rival challenged him to a duel. Hie 
young Scot accepted. As he had the choice of 
we^ons he selected pistols. He was alreacfy an 



expert witli all kinds of fireaims and in the 
resulting Tight he killed his opponent. 

There was a tremendous outcry and he was 
forced to flee the countiy. He managed to reach 
his native land in safety, but on his family's 
advice decided it would be wiser to get right out 

of Europe. He therefore sold his inheritance for 
£20.000 and left Scotland for ever 

It was during the long voyage to Australia 
that Gordon Lennox obtained the sobriquet by 
^^ich he was ever afterwards known. On board 
the ship were two thoroughbred horses and he 
noticed that one of them was suffering 
considerable pain &om a badly fitting shoe 
^^ich was pinching its hoof He immediately 
approached the c^tain and informed him of the 
fact. 

"Well," said the latter, "what can I do about 
it?" 

"If you'll give me the necessary pennission, 
sir," was the reply, " I'll put the matter right." 

"Cany on," the c^tain ordered. 



Gordon Lennox went back to the animal, 

removed the offending shoe, pai'ed the hoof and 
expertly replaced the shoe. He was aheady 
known among the passengers as Scotty because 
of his nationality. Some of them had watched the 
operation and had admired the adroitness with 
which he had performed it, and so they began 
calling him "Scotty the Blacksmith". Hiis was 
soon abbreviated to Scott>^ Smith, a title by 
^^ich he was ever afterwards known. 

On its way to Australia t!ie diip touched at the 
C^e and Scotty saw, for tlie first time, the 
coimtry ^A^rich was subsequently to be the scene 
of his most famous exploits. Arriving in 
Australia he began practising his veterinary 
calling, but before long the lure of gold attracted 
him to the diggings. His luck was out, however, 
and he was obviously not destined to make a 
fortune as a miner. Instead he ran into very grave 
trouble. 

One day the camp was aroused by screams of 
pain. Scotty went to investigate and saw a huge, 
hulking miner thrashing ayoungster, not yet out 



of his teens: A crowd of men were standing 

watching, but no one daied to interfere. Scotty, 
however, with his usual quixotiy immediately 
intervened. 

"Leave the boy alone! " he shouted. 

The bully turned on him. "Mind yom' own 
business," he roared, and without fiirther ado he 
pulled out a revolver. 

But before he could fne, Scotty had diawn his 
own gun and had shot him dead. Even for those 
lawless times, however, his action was consider- 
ed too drastic. There was a hue and cry after him, 
and he had to run for it. He was foitunatc enough 
to esc^e, and the distinct possibility exists that 
at this stage in his career he became an outlaw 
and took to the Australian bush. In fact there is 
such a mai'ked similaiitj' between his subsequent 
South-A&'icau exploits and those of Obtain 
Starlight, the legendary hero of Ralph 
Boldrewood's famous book. Robbery Under 
AfiTiSj that some writers have suggested the 



author may have modelled his fictitious charter 
on Scotty. 

It is much more probable, however, that 
feeling the country was getting too hot to hold 
him, he boarded a ship which was sailing for 
America. He disembarked at New York and 
became friendly with one of the cit>' bannaids. 
Before long they were keeping company and this 
passing attachment soon involved him in a most 
humiliating situation. 

One d^ he walked into the bar where his girl 

was employed. And then he stopped dead. At the 
counter was a huge fellow with his arm round 
the baimaid, whispering endearments in her ear. 

With a fiirious exclamation Gordon Lennox 

strode up to the ^"tianger. "Leave my girl alone !" 
he yelled, and slapped his rival's face. The latter 
immediately retaliated and the next moment the 
two were going for one another. 

Gordon Lennox was young, agile, powerfully 
built and six feet two inches in height. But all his 
strength, courage and pugnacity proved of no 



avaiL Before long he had been reduced to a 
bniised, battered wreck. With the blood 
streaming from his face, he was eventually 
forced to give in. Only then did he learn the 
mistake he had made. His conqueror was the 
heavyweight champion of the New York police 
forcef 

The young Scot's wounds soon healed. He 
had, however, been deeply shamed, and there 
was only one way he could restore his self- 
respect. He must pay hk opponent out in his own 
coin. But although he was burning with revenge 
he realised that to tackle so formidable an 
antagoni&'t again, without adequate tiaiiiing, 
would be to couit disaster. He therefore set about 
preparing himself systematically for the return 
bout. 

His first step was to engage the services of a 
well-known pugilist who was noted for his 
rough-house tactics. 



"I want you to teach me all the tricks of the 

trade," he toltJ this man. "I've got a mouth and 
then I'm going to knock that fellow's block off." 

He mentioned the champion's name and the 

ex prize-fighter whistled. 

"That's rather a tall order," he exclaimed. 
Hien he looked at Lermox's magnificent 
physique. "You sure have the body, son," he 
muttered in admiration. "Well, we'll see what we 
can do." 

With grim detennination the young Scot 
settled down to training. He proved an pupil 
and within the month felt that he was ready to 
revenge his defeat. He had studiously kept away 
&om the scene of his disgrace, but now^ 
deliberately choosing a time when he knew that 
the policeman would be there, he entered the bar. 
He immediately saw his rival at the counter. 
Casually taking his place a few feet away from 
him, he ordered a brandy. 



A startled expression flitted across the bar- 
maid's face as she served him^ but she said 
nothing. Scotty drained hi&" glass. 

"Another," he growled. 

The second glass did not follow the same 
course as its predecessor. Holding it poised for a 
moment in his hand, he turned round slowly 
before hurling its contents into his enemy's face. 
With a snarl of rage the latter wiped the brandy 
out of his eyes. Tlien he saw^io had done this 
unforgivable thing to him. 

"What," he roared "It's you again is it? Come 

for some more, ha\'e you?" And lie prepared to 
give the presumptuous young Scot the thrashing 
of his life. 

The fight i^ich followed was talked about for 
many years afterwards by the men who were 
fortunate enough to be in the bai^ that afternoon. 
This time, however, the two antagonists were 
much more evenly matched, and both took a 
good deal of punishment from one another's 
fists. In the end Gordon Lennox began to gain 



the upper hand, and he then proceeded to give 
his opponent aii unmerciful beating. As he used 
to describe it to his friends in later life, "I 
administered to him the grandfather and 
grandmother of all hidings, so that even his 
parents wouldn't have been able to recognise 
him." 

Soon afterwards Scotty left America and 
returned to Europe. He arrived to find that the 
Franco -Prussian War had broken out and he 

immediately offered his services to the French. 
During one of the battles he was wounded and 
c£^tured by the Germans. He became aprisoner- 
of-war and was only released when hostilities 
ceased. To his dying day, however, he canied a 
memento of this war - a scai^ on his forehead, 
where a spent bullet had strack him. 

A couple of years later we find him fighting 

for the Carlists in the wai' of 1872-1876. In the 
end, the attempt to restore Don Carlos of 
Bourbon to the Spanish throne failed dismally, 
and Scotty looked round for another country in 
^^ich he could live dangerously. 



His choice fell on the C^^^e of Good Hope. In 
1877 be joined the Frontier Aimed and Mounted 
Police and set out for South-Africa - a couutiy 
^^ich was to be his home for over forty years, 
and in v\diich he was to gain undying fame as a 
horse-thief, cattle-lifter and outlaw- 

chapteh Two 

Deserter And Philahthropist 

In selecting South-Africa as his future sphere 
of operations, Scotty Smith conld hai'dly have 
made amore fortunate choice from his own point 
of view. At the time the country was split up into 
a number of separate, disimited states, some of 
which were so weak and unstable that it was 
only with the greatest difficulty that they 
managed to survive at all. Tom by racial and 
political dissensions, menaced by constant 
Native wars and unrest, and with hopelessly 
inadequate police forces, they were a h^py 
hunting ground for freebooters, filibusters, and 
adventurers of all kinds. In the border aieas law 
and order were practically non-existent. There 



were no extradition treaties and the diamond and 

gold discoveries were soon to offer rich and 
glittering rewards to those daring enough to seize 
them. 

Scolty aiTived at the Cape in 1877 and almost 
immediately he was thrown into the kind of 
activity in which he delighted. There have been 
nine official Kafir wars in South-Africa Scotty 
speared on the scene just in time to take part in 
the very last of these, the Galeka-Gaika revolt of 
1877. The campaign ended in the following year 
and he was then stationed at Kokstad as a 
military farrier. For some months he and a man 
called Broome were quaitered together, aiid the 
latter has left this slight but interesting 
recollection of what Scotty Smith was like at the 
time. 

"All I can remember of him in any way 
noteworthy was as a wiry red-bearded young 
fellow, with a curious look of pre occupancy and 
a disposition to gamble and sing occasionally, 
most deplorably out of tune." 



During tlie Ninlli Kafir War and the subse- 
quent Cjiiqua rebellion of 1880 Scotty had beeu 
in his element. But he was no peacetime soldier, 
and when hostilities ceased he found it 
increasingly difficult to submit to the ordinary 
routine of anny life. At one paiticular saddle 
parade, for example, he could not be bothered 
polishing his saddle and burnishing his bit, spurs 
and stirrup irons to the requisite pitch of 
perfection. Instead he coolly placed his 
uncleaned accoutrements on the ground where 
their dirty, rusty s^pearance showed up in strong 
contrast to the gleaming equipment of the other 
men. He was promptly disciplined by his 
commanding officer for committing so heinous 
an offence. Instead of this teaching him a. lesson 
he treated the matter ivitli indifference, and 
simply left his gear on the paiade ground in the 
mud and rain until late the following day. 

About this time Scotty's Tmancial affiiirs, 
^^ich he had entrusted to the Bank of Glasgow, 
became somewhat involved. His presence in 
Scotland was urgently needed in order to 



straighten out matters. Calmly deserting from his 
regiment, he proceeded to his native land and put 
matters right. He then returned to the mounted 
police and was presumably punished for his 
dereliction from duty, although there is no record 
of this. He was next i^ent to King William's 
Town where he finally decided to sever his 
cormection with army life and to begin the long 
career of horse-thieving and brigandage i^ich 
was to make his name a household word in 
Southern Afiica_ Even his desertion was typical 
of the man. He absconded with two of the best 
police horses! 

It is impossible to give the correct chrono- 
logical order of Scotty Smith's vai'ious adven- 
tures and esc^ades. But it seems probable that 
the stratagem ^lich he employed at Fort Beau- 
fort was the very fust of these, and took place 
shortly after his defection from the anny. In his 
old age he was inordinately proud of this 
episode, which is understandable because in 
none of his subsequent exploits did he ever quite 



reach the same heights of quixotry and ingenuity 
as he did on this occasion. 

Any ordinary man in his position would have 
put as much distance between himself and King 
William's Town as possible. But Scotty, who 
was a master of disguise, always did the most 
unexpected things. As a result he rode no fiirther 
than Fort Beaufort^ which was only about fifty 
miles aw^. There, he disposed of the stolen 
horses and, his real identity undetected, he 
obtained a job with a road coiistmctioii gang as 
an assistant foreman. Scotty could, if he wished, 
be the most congenial of companions and he and 
the foreman soon became great friends. 

Hie road diey were building passed through 
numerous farms from whose owners they 
received much kindness and consideration. In 
particular, they were very hospitably entertained 
by a lonely but rich old couple, at whose home 
there was always a bed and a meal waiting for 
them. Unfortunately, not long after this, the old 
man died and, when the will was read, an 
amazing disclosure was made. Practically 



everything he possessed had been bequeathed to 

the lawyer who was managing his affairs, ^^ile 
his wife had been left penniless. 

With almost indecent haste the lawyer wound 
up the estate and put the assets up to auction. 
Altogether about £10,000 was realised and was 
deposited to his account in the local bank. The 
widow was too frail and heartbroken to take any 
action, but Scotty was suspicious. Using his own 
methods he obtained the will, studied it 
carefully, and came to the conclusion that it was 
a forgery. He therefore sent it to the bank 
manager together with a statement embodying 
his suspicions and recommending that the 
signatures on the will should be tested by a 
handwiuting expert. In addition he decided to 
take independent action to help the widow in 
case nothing came of his suggestion. 

On the veiy night on which the money was 
deposited, a stealthy frgure might have been seen 
slinking through the sleeping village. Hie 
following morning Fort Beaufort woke to a 
scene of tense excitement. The bank had been 



broken into and £10,000 had been stolen. The 
police wei e summoned but there was not a single 
clue to the identity of the thief. As a result it was 
rumoured that a reward of £1,000 was to be 
offered for his c^ture. 

A few days later Scotty and the foreman were 

sitting in their camp talking. The latter looked 
veiy worried and Scotty asked him ^^at was 
wrong. 

"Ifs my wife," the foreman replied "She's 
seriously ill and needs specialist treatment. 
That'll cost money and T haven't a bean. Now if 
only I could ci^ture the bank robber ..." and he 
looked wistfiiUy into space. 

"Why," Scotty laughed, "if that's all that's 
troubling you, we'll soon put it right." 

" How can we do that?" the man asked. 

" 1 know who the robber is," Scotty remaiked 
nonchalantly. 'T can 1^ my hand on him when- 
ever I want to." 



"What !" cried the excited man, "you actually 
mean to tell me that—" 

"Yes," Scotty agreed, "but first come with me 
and let's get this reward business straightened 
out." 

They set out for the bank and when they 
arrived Scotty asked to see the manager. 

"IVe got certain information," he told him, 
"which'U put you on the ti^ack of the man you're 
after. 1 must, however, make sure about the 
reward. Are you prepaied to sign a wiitten 
undertaking that the £1,000 will be paid to the 
person vAo gives you the information \^ich'll 
lead to his arrest, and to the recovery of the 
money?" 

"Certainly," the manager replied, and he 
accordingly drew up and signed a statement to 
this effect. Scotty looked at it and saw that it was 
in order. 

"Right," he cried. "You'll be hearing fi^om us 
soon. There are one or two things 1 have to do 
first and then well be back." 



They returned to their camp, and ^len they 
got there Scotty gave his fiiend the manager's 

statement. 

"Take caix of this." he remaiked, "and the 
money's as good as in yom' pocket." 

"I don't understand what you mean/' the fore- 
man exclaimed. 

"Ifs quite plain;" Scotty paused dramatically. 
"You see, I'm the ch^ broke into the bank." 

"What! You! I dont believe it:" 

"It's trne all right, so all you have to do to 
claim the rewai'd is to hand me over, and Til see 
to it that the bank gets its money back." 

"Never," his horrified companion protested. 
"You're my &iend. I can't possibly betray you. 
It's out of the question." 

"Oh, don't worry about me," Scotty casually 
assured him. "As soon as you've received the 
cash, 111 make my getaway. No jail in South- 
A&ica'llholdme for long." 



At first the foreman would have nothing to do 

with the scheme. But Scotty could be very 
persuasive when he liked, and eventually he 
induced his fiiend to change his mind. Together 
they returned to the bank and a policeman was 

summoned. He arrested Scottj' and lodged him in 
the local jail. The manager, however, refused to 
part with the reward until the money had been 
recovered, and so the foi eman went sadly away, 
wondering why his friend had done such a 
foolish thing, and all for nothing. 

But Scotty had his plans worked out. True to 
his promise he did not remain in captivity for 
long. After his i^prehension, his lodgings had 
been carefully seai'ched. No trace of the missing 
banknotes had, however, been discovered. This 
was naturally a matter of grave concern to the 
manager and so at the first oppoitunity he visited 
Scotty in his cell and broached the subject. 

"Tell me first," Scotty rejoined. "Has anything 
been done about the will?" 



"Yes," the manager conceded. "You were 
quite right, of course. The ^'ignatiires were 
defmitety forged. The police now have the 
matter in hand and you can rest assured that the 
lawyer will be punished and the widow justly 
treated. You did a good deed there, all right, 
Scotty. The money really belongs to her, which 
makes it all the more incomprehensible to me 
w4iy you stole it." 

"It should be obvious/' the prisoner pointed 

out. "I don't tmst the law and I was making 
absolutely certain that whatever happened she'd 
get her just dues." 

"I understand," the manager nodded his head. 

"So you were going to give her the money, were 
you? But I don't see how she's going to get it 
now. And surely you must realise the mess 
you've put me in." 

Scotty looked straight at him. "Well, sir," he 
remarked, "I've a proposition to make. You've 
played the game about the will, aiid now I'm 
prepared to be stiaight with you. If you'll 



accompany me, I'll show you where the notes are 

hidden on one condition. You must come alone. I 
don't want anyone else to know where I've 
concealed them." 

The manager was a middle-aged man and was 
fairly robust, but he hesitated It was so obvious 
that he was afiaid to entrust himself to Scotty 
that the latter burst out laughing. 

"You've nothing to worry about," he roaied. 
"I'll be handcuffed and you can tie a rope to my 
saddle if you like." 

Tlie bank ofHcial was still dubious. As Scotty, 

however, remained obdurate and he was really 
perturbed about the money, he at length gave in. 

"All right," he fmally agreed. "I'll take a 
chance." 

"It's quite a long way," Scotty pointed out, "so 
you'd better take some food along for us." 

The next d^ the manager obtained the 

necessary police permission and then they set out 
on horseback on their quest: Actually the hiding 



place was not as far away as Scotty had 
pretended, but he wanted some time to make his 
escape, and so he led the manager by a most 
circuitous route. At last, shortly after midday, 
they came to a clearing in the bush with two or 
three low mounds of earth showing through the 
grass. 

"I think we'd better have our lunch now," he 
suggested: It was a hot day and the older man 
had been feeling the pace, so he was glad to have 
a rest. Tliey sat dowii on a couple of the mounds 
and he took out some sandwiches and a bottle of 
cold coffee. 

"You'll have to feed me," Scotty joked. "I 
cant possibly eat like this," and he held out his 
manacled hands. For a little while they ate their 
lunch in silence and then Scotty, who had 
exceptionally slender hands for a man of his size, 
unobtrusively slipped the handcuffs off his 
wrists. As his unsuspecting companion leant 
forward to give him another sandwich, he 
suddenly felt himself seized in an iron grip. 
There was a brief struggle but the bank official 



was no match for his hefly opponent. Within a 
few minutes he had been overpowered and 
neatly tn*ssed up. 

"Now," Scott>' pointed out. "the tables are 
turned. You're my prisoner, and I could easily 
make off with the notes, but IVe never yet 
broken my word and I don't intend doina so now. 
I promised to take you to the money and IVe 
fiilfilled my promise. If s there." 

He pointed dramatically to the mount on 
^^ich the manager was lying. 

"YouVe nothing to fear," Scotty continued. 
"It's not far to the town and I'll tell the first man I 
meet where you are." Then, mounting one of the 
horses, he rode off 

Again Scotty honoured his promise, and in 
due course a search was made for the missing 
banker and he was rescued. The mount was dug 
up and the money recovered. Once more there 
was a country-wide hue and cry for the 
audacious deserter and jail-breaker. But it proved 



:&uitless. By that time Scotty was riding hard for 
the north. 

This story has a happy sequel for Scotty's 
friend, the road coiistmctioii foreman. The bank 
had recovered its missing money, and technically 
Scotty had been arrested, so it decided to pay out 
the promised reward. As a result the foreman 
was able to send his wife aw^ for the specialist 
treatment she so badly needed. 

For a time Scotty made his headquarters in 
the vicinity of Kimberley. From there he began 

raiding the faniis of the more prosperous and 
well-to-do farmers in the Transvaal and the Free 
State, lifting their livestock and generally 
playing havoc with their attempts at horse- 
breeding and cattle-raising. 

As long a&" Scotty confined his activities to the 
two Dutch Republics, the Cape authorities, in 
spite of his record as a deserter, esc^ed 
prisoner, and bank -robber, did not interfere 
unduly with his movements. It was quite another 
matter, however, when they found that he was 



extending his operations to their side of the 

border and was indulging in such lucrative but 

illegal sidelines as LD.B., gun-running, and 
similar pursuits. 

Soon the police were on his track and 
although he managed to keep out of their 
clutches, he realised that his luck would not hold 
indefmitely. He therefore decided that it would 
be healthier to move further into the interior 
beyond the reach of the authorities. He rode off 
three hundred miles noithwaids to the small 
isolated Transvaal village of Zeemst. 

Here law and order were simply non-existent 
and the rule of the gun held sway. The strong 
flourished and the weak went to the wall. In this 
congenial atmosphere Scotty had an uproarious 
time. The little iiontier town was crowded with 
men after his own heart unscrupulous 
adventurers from all parts of the globe, who had 
congregated in this wild area with only one 
object in view, to make easy fortunes with the 
least possible effort. 



These tough desperadoes haunted the 

notorious "Zeenist Chib", which had its 
headquarters at the "Bucket of Blood" hotel, 
where everythmg was laid on to suit the heart of 
even the most fastidious bandit billiards, 

ga!!ibling and booze. Tlie only aiticles in 
somewhat short supply were women. There were 
just sufficient of these to incite and lend spice to 
the incessant dninkei: brawls, bouts of fisticuffs 
and eun duels, which added so much to the 
enjoyment and pleasure of all concerned. 

Scott>' took to this congenial company with 
delight. Here he met such choice characters as 
Jimmy McGiIi\'i'ay, whose daring cattle -rustling 
exploits almost rivalled his own, James W. 
Honey, who was later to come to a violent if 
somewhat mysterious end, and a host of lesser 
lights. 

Tliere was nothing exclusive about member- 
ship of the "Zeerust Club". But it was certainly 
an expensive hobby belonging to it^ especially as 
its proprietor, Henry Martin, was known to be 
violently allergic to customers ^lo sampled his 



wares and &en were unable to p^ for them. In 

order to avoid this embaiiassing situation most 
of its habitues went in for various questionable 
methods of acquiring ready cash. Scotty, of 
course, had a ready source of income at hand. 
All he had to do was to continue his cattle- 
raiding and horse-lifting exploits. He carried 
these out so successfully that the local farmers 
came to curse the day that had brought him to 
live among them. In fact, stock-breeding became 
a nightmare on the ranches in the district. There 
was little, however, the owners could do about it. 

But fortunately for the more peaceful farmers 
in the area, Scotty did not remain very long in 

Zeenist. He was always possessed of a roving 
disposition, which made him move continually 
from place to place. And about this time events 
were happening in the new republics of Goshen 
and Stellaland, which drew him southwards. 



Chapter Three 

Freebooter And Filibuster 

For some years Scotty made the wild country, 
bordering ou Taungs^ Yrybiirg andMafeking and 
extending westwaids through the Kalahari 
Desert to the frontier of Gennan South West 
Africa, his hunting grounds. In the early 'eighties 
of last centiijy thi^' ai ea. most of which became 
in after years the Crown Colony of British 
Bechuanaland, was a real no-man's-land, in 
"^^ich law and order were non-existent and 
success in life depended on the primitive 
precept: 

The good old rule^ the simple mle. 

The power to take and hold. 

Much of this huge teixitoiy is desert country, 
but on its eastern boundary lies a feitile strip of 
land through v\diich once ran the famous route 
known a,s" the Missionaries' Road, and which was 
used not only by tlie religious pioneers but also 
by traders, adventurers, explorers and big-gaine 
hunters on their way into the interior. Over half a 



century before, the powerful Bechuana tribes in 
this region had been paitly destioyed by 
Mzilikazi's terrible impis, and had only esc^ed 
complete annihilation by fleeing for sanctuary 
into the sandy wastes. When the Matebele power 
was finally cnished in the late 'foities, the 
remnants of these people crept cautiously out of 
hiding and under various petty chiefs began to 
rebuild their tribes. In the ensuing struggle for 
power, a good deal of internecine strife took 
place and the services of white filibusters, with 
their guns and ammunition, were eagerly 
welcomed. 

As a result, a fme a&'&'ortment of rogues, ne'er- 
do-wells, desperadoes and soldiers of fortune 
gathered fiom ail paits of Africa in search of 
easy pickings. Tliese freebooters offered their 
services to the rival chieflains at the usual price a 
substantial share in the cattle, land and other 
loot, ^^ich could be snatched from their 
defeated enemies. 

With the scramble for Africa and the opening 
up of the interior during the latter half of the 



nineteenth century, the Missionaries' Road 

suddenly a^&^umed an added iuipoitaiice, ant! 
became a valuable pohtical pawn in the stmggie 
for land and power south of the Limpopo. Of the 
interested parties, the Transvaal Republic, ever 
eager to enlarge its frontiers, began to cast eyes 
on the territory through which the road passed. 
Down at the Cape the rising young millionaire 
politician, Cecil Rhodes, quickly realised that the 
closing of "The Suez Canal of the Interior" 
would block the colony's expansion to the north 
and end his dreams of extending British 
influence from the Cape to Cairo. In addition the 
Imperial Goverirment was giving serious 
consideration to the question of taking over 
Bechuanaland. To complicate matters still 
further the new western boundary of the South- 
African Republic, as laid down by the Pretoria 
Convention of 1881, had cut in half the lands of 
many of the petty chiefs ^^o had been the allies 
of President Burgers. 

Gradually from the confused welter of 
plotting, alliance -making, bargaining and 



fighting "^^ich was taking place among the 
vaiious chieftains in this troubled aiea, a 
some^^drat unstable pattern began to emerge. In 
the north were the two Baralong rivals for 
power, the pro-British Montsioa of Schuba, and 
the pro-Boer Moshette of Kiinana. In the south 
were their counterparts, the Batalapin chief, 
Mankoroane, at Taungs, and the Korana chief, 
Massouw, at Mamusa. 

Under these circumstances the land was a 
veritable paradise for the filibusters and 
freebooters. The fighting between the different 
tribes was usually spasmodic and not of a very 
serious natiire. Tlie wliite adventurers were able 
to devote most of their time and enei^ to 
making their own fortunes. In pursuance of this 
policy they even formulated a definite line of 
action which aimed at acquiring as much booty 
as possible at a minimum risk to themselves. In 
fact they went so far as to draw up a gentleman's 
agreement that, rf circumstances forced them to 
fire at one another, they would deliberately aim 
high. So meticulously was this convention 



observed tliat in my researches I h^e been able 

to discover the caines of only two white men, a 
Louw and a Fourie, who were actually killed 
during these so-called battles and skiimishes. 

Actually these freebooter engagements were 
usually comic opera aSairs, in "^ich victory 
frequently went to the side able to put on the 
most spectacular military demonstration. Usually 
there was much taunting of the enemy, 
screaming of wai^ cries^ exhortations from the 
leaders, and fning of guns. These guns, stolen 
from missionaries or purchased at exorbitant 
prices from gunrunners, were as a rule obsolete 
old muzzleloaders, long past their prime. This 
was not, however, of vital importance as they 
were judged on the din they created rather than 
the effectiveness of their firepower. As a matter 
of fact, when loaded with jagged stones, lengths 
of trek chain, pot legs, broken kettle spouts, 
pieces of plough shares, and other odd bits of 
ironmongery, they ofren proved more dangerous 
to theii' owners than to the enemy. This was 
especially the case when two or three times the 



normal charge of gunpowder had been rammed 
down their ancient bairels. Firearms of all kinds 
did, however, play a very important part in 
boosting the morale of the tribes, ^lile 
possession of a cannon was looked upon as a 
trump card of the first magnitude. 

In the early 'eighties, the Transvaal free- 
booters in the north were having by far the better 
of things. Tlieir protege, Moshette, had 
^pointed Niklas Gey van Pittius as his agent. In 
1882, with his assistance, the chief had inflicted 
a crushing defeat on Montsioa and had laid his 
c£^3ital, Sehuba, in ruins. As a result a large piece 
of the latter's land was confiscated and was used 
for the establishment of the puppet republic of 
Goshen. 

Further south, things had also gone badly for 
the pro-English section. There Massouw, the 
leader of a small but compact claii of Korana- 
Hottentots, was causing a great deal of trouble. 
Tlie ancestors of these Hottentots had originally 
lived on the shores of Table Bay, but the 
expansion of European civilisation had gradually 



forced tliem further and further into the interior. 

In theii' wanderings every maii'&" liaiid had been 
against them and they were continually fighting 
to preserve their existence. Moving ever 
northwards they had eventually established 
themselves at Mainiisa on the west bank of the 
Harts River, where they had converted a natural 
hill fortress into a strong bastion and on its 
summit had constructed a rough stone fort. 

In October 1881, Mankaioane and his white 
allies had launched aii ill-advised attack on 
Mamusa, but had been defeated and driven back 
in confusion. Massouw, on the advice of his 
white friend&\ then decided to offer a farm, and 
half the loot captured, to every European who 
agreed to fight for him. 

To his credit it must be recorded that the 
Hottentot chief also laid down the condition that 
no huts were to be biinit oi women and children 
molested. This rule was generally observed not 
only by his own men but also by those of the 
enemy. 



The generous terms proposed by Massouw 
attracted numerous freebooters to his cause. 
Soon he had an army of 400 desperadoes, under 
Sarel Petrus Celliers, at his disposal. He put 
these troops into laager at a place called Manthe 
and from there they kept up a constant series of 
raids on Maukaroane's herds. To add to his 
troubles the latter had fallen out both with his 
English allies and with Montsioa, and was also 
being hard pressed by Gasibone, the chief of a 
rival Batl^in tribe. 

At this stage Mankaroaue tried to recoup his 
losses by attacking Massouw at Fourie's Graf, 
with disastrous consequences. Not only was he 
defeated but he suffered a shattering political 
setback - his ship's camion, the pride and joy of 
his heart, was c^tured. This was a very serious 
blow to his prestige and as a result many of his 
tribesmen deserted him. 

Such was the state of affairs when one bright 
day Scotty rode into the straggling native 
township of Taungs. At the time Scotty was 
about thirty-seven years of age. He was a very 



striking personality. He had r thick red beard, 

heavy eyebrows^, bright bhie eyes and a mddy 
face. In peifect physical condition, he had a 
beautifuiiy-propoitioned, well-built body. He 
was also as hard as nails and as wild as a ha^^. 

It did not take him long to size up the 

situation and to realise the possibilities. He 
arranged an interview with Mankaroane on 
whom he made a great impression. With his 
stock at low ebb and smaiting from his recent 
defeat at the hands of Massouw, the chief 
eagerly welcomed his new ally, and with acumen 
rare in a primitive ruler, he outlined the plan of 
campaign which he proposed to adopt. 

"We are too weak/' he told Scotty, ''to drive 
the Boers out of the countiy. so we must stop 
them from settling dowiL We must raid their 
camps. We must steal their cattle. We must rob 
them of theii' horses. We must keep them shut up 
in a laager. In this way they will be so busy 
protecting their own herds that they will have no 
time to attack us. When they fmd they caimot 
remain in peaceful occupation of the farms they 



have stolen &om us, they will get tired and will 
return to their own country." 

No proposition could have been more 
acceptable to the newcomer and he certainly 
made the most of the oppoitunity which fate had 
afforded him. Before long he had recruited his 
own private aniiy, a well-organised, well-aimed 
little force of about thirty ^^ites and double that 
number of blacks. 

With this miniature anny to back him, Scotty 
threw himself "^^oleheartedly into the fray. So 

successfully did he caiiy out the chiefs policy of 
attrition that on more than one occasion he made 
a clean sweep of the cattle belonging to a 
particular Boer encampment. Even at this eaily 
stage of his career in South-Africa he was able to 
boast that he had already stolen over 750 horses. 

Scotty did not confme himself to horse-lifting 
and cattle raiding. If he required arms, ammu- 
nition, clothing or provisions for his men he did 
not scruple to break into some convenient store 
and take what he needed. It is known, for 



example, tliat about this time he burgled the shop 
of Charles Daly at Bloemhof. 

Charles Daly, himself, was a chai'acter in his 
own right. A survivor of the w^eck of the 
Birkenhead, he had made his way into the 
Transvaal and had set up as a trader and 
merchant In course of time he esfabli&^hed 
himself at Bloemhof, and became a great friend 
of Paul Kniger. During the Stellaland-Goshen 
disturbances he was given a magazine licence by 
the Transvaal Government, and was in fact the 
only man pennitted to supply the republican 
forces with arms, ammunition, and provisions. 

His shop was well stocked and proved a 
natural target for Scotty Smith. One day its 
owner arrived to fmd that during the night his 
store had been raided and denuded of goods. 
There was no doubt w^o the culprits were. 
Attached to the door was a postcard on which 
was written a complete list of what had been 
taken. The postcard was signed by Scotty Smith 
and some of his gang, as a token of good faith 
that the stolen articles would be paid for in due 



course. Whether this was ever done has not been 

lecoi'ded. But, strangely enough, Scotty was 
usually absolutely scrupulous in keeping his 
word when he gave an assurance of this kind, as 
witness the following story related to me by Mr 
J.H. Burke of the farm Brandhout, in the 
Mafeking District. 

Once Scotty was in a veiy tight comer. 
Hemmed in by the police, his plight was so 
desperate that he actually had to abandon his 
horse, a thing he would never have done except 
as a last resort. However, by means of a mse, he 
managed to esc^e and trekked across the veld 
on foot. 

Eventually he came to a rough wagon track 
and following this he overtook some African 
transport riders in charge of two or three wagons. 
Scotty asked them to ^lom the outfit belonged. 
They told him that it was the property of Jan 
Coetzee. 

"Tlie baas." they explained, "has ridden 
aliead, as we are not fai' ft om the house." 



On receiving this infbnnation Scotty speared 
to be highly delighted. 

"Look," he exclaimed, " I'm Piet Coetzee, Jan 
Coetzee's nephew. Yon must give me a lift." 

He climbed into the wagon, lay down inside 
the tent, and went to sleep. He was awakened by 
the sound of approaching horses and then he 
heaid ^^onieone asking the boys wliether they had 
seen him. Much to his relief they answered, 
"No," and the next moment the men had turned 
their horses and had ridden o£r in a different 
direction. 

When they reached the faiiii. Scott\" intro- 
duced himself to Mr Coetzee as his nephew, Piet. 
In those days most of the Boer famihes had so 
many nephews and nieces that Oom Jan did not 
for one moment doubt Scottj''s stoiy. He took 
him inside aiid told his wife who he was. 

Scotty was immediately invited to sit down 
and was treated with the greatest hospitality, 
Eveiytliing went well uutil the Coetzees tiied to 
find out to which branch of the family he 



belonged. As they tracked down his supposed 
relationship he became more and more 
embarrassed until at last he was fairly cornered. 
Then he took the bold w:^ out. Putting his cards 
on the table he openly confessed vidio he was. He 
followed this up by giving the old couple a 
completely truthful account of what had 
happened to him, and fmally asked Jan if he 
would be good enough to let him have a horse. 

"I haven't any money on me at the moment," 
he told hi^ host, "but I promise faithfully to pay 

you when I can." 

"Of course, I'll give you what you want," 
Oom Jan ^reed. "You know, Scotty, IVe been 
told a good deal about you, and its common talk 
that you've helped a lot of people in your time." 

Mr Coetzee was as good as his word. He 
provided Scotty with a fme chestnut pony, 
complete with saddle and bridle, and his wife 
supplied him with a packet of food for the 
journey. 



ScoHy rode away and for some tinie nothing 
more was lieai'd of him. Tlien one day Ooni Jan 
was on the Jolianuesburg market squaie when a 
man came up and spoke to liim. At first he could 
not remember who it was, but wlien Scotty told 
him that he wanted to pay for the liorse he had 
boiTowed it all came back to him. 

"How much do yoii want for the animal?" 
Scotty asked. Coetzee named his price, and 
Scotty promptly paid him double the sum he had 
requested. 

"You see, Oom Jan," he explained, "that pony 
made it possible for me to escape, and so was 
woith much more to me than its actual value iu 
money." 

Like all good soldiers the Stellalajid-Gosheu 
freebooters had soon acquired theii' own 
paiticulai" maiching song. There aie various 
versions of this ditty, hut I append two stanzas 
which were recited to me by Col. A.S. Taylor 
and Col. E.W. Woon, respectively, both ex-Cape 
Mounted Policemen who aie now living in 



retiiement in East London and who knew Scotty 
personally: 

Come saddle up my horse, 

And strap my billy on. 

To hell with the Lime Juice Parliament^ 

We'll fight for Mankaroane. 

Now cheer boys cheer and never be afraid. 

We're marching in the ranks of the Stellaland 
Brigade. 

And as we march along, we'// sing this song. 
And fight for good old Mankaroane. 

Soon Scotty had become such a scourge to his 
enemies that the government of the South- 
A&ican Republic put a price of £500 on his head. 



^ Tlie Cape Pai'liament 



Some of the leading Transvaal freebooters, 
iucliiding Groot Adiiaaii de la Rey, Gey vaii 
Pittius and Gert van Niekeik, did theii^ best to 
earn tbe reward. All their efTorts, however, 
proved in vain. Scotty often took the most dare- 
devil risks and he had ?ome hairbreadth escapes. 
But his cool brain and proverbial Luck extricated 
him from the most perilous situations. 

On one occasion Groot Adriaan de la Rey, a 

brother of die famous Boer War general, made a 
deteiiuined effort to lay Scott\' by the heels. He 
organised a commando of fanners from the 
Western Transvaal area and set out on his trail. It 
was not long before Scotty discovered what was 
happening, and although he had no illusions 
about what his fate would be if he were caught, 
he decided to pl^ a prank on his enemies. 
Insteai^ of cloins the sensible thing and going to 
ground until the danger was over, his queer sense 
of humour induced him to put his head right in 
the lion's mouth. 

Accompanied by a friend he set out and came 
upon the punitive force near the present village 



of Amalia. Riding boldly up to its leader he 
asked him where he was going. 

"We are searching for Scotty Smith," was the 
reply. 

"Oh," Scotty exclaimed. "My friend and I aie 
also looking for the scoundrel. Do you mind if 
we join forces with you?" 

Groot Adriaan was quite ^reeable. Scotty 

thus had the peculiai' pleasure of taking pait in 
the futile hunt for himself. For two days they 
continued the abortive search. Then Scotty told 
De la Rey that he and his friend were a long way 
fr^m home. On the following day they would 
have to begin their return journey. He thanked 
the commando for allowing him to accompany 
them on the hunt and then he said, "Eveiy night 
you've taken it in tiim to stand watch, and we^■e 
done nothing. As this is our last night we'd like 
to do our share of guard duty, so that you can all 
have a good rest." 

The men were only too glad to accept this 
considerate offer. Needless to say when they 



awoke at dawn tlie next day not only had Scotty 
and his friend disappeared but all their horses 
had vanished as well. 

On anotlier occasion Scott>' is reputed to have 
had a veiy nairow escape from poisoning. He 
was riding across the desert early one morning 
when he came to a camp. A paity of four Boers 
with their wives and families were trekking and 
had stopped for the night. When Scotty joined 
them they were aheady inspanned and ready to 
move. Unfoitunately for him one of the men 
recognised who he wa.s". 

At the first opportunity the Boer whispered 
the information to his companions. There was a 
hasty consultation. Scotty's reputation wa^\ 
however, so well knowii that the Boers hesitated 
to attack him. Instead one of them slipped some 
poison into a beaker of brandy and gave it to 
him. Scotty was quite unsuspicious and drank it. 
The poison soon took effect and he coll^sed. 
The Boers made haste to trek, leaving the outlaw 
for dead 



Hours later he was found by one of his own 
men. He remained unconscious for a long time» 
but his constitution stood him in good stead. 
After a ^^ile he recovered. He had had a narrow 
escape, however, and some of his teeth and most 
of his hair fell out. As soon as he was fit to travel 
again he hastened to revenge the attempt on his 
life. 

The Boers were deep in the Kalahari ^^en 

Scott>' and his gang came up with them. A fight 
took place and all the men were killed. Scotty 
then put the women and childien into a wagon 
^^ich he sent back to the Transvaal. The other 
three wagons with their spans of oxen he kept for 
himself, as compensation for the suffering he had 
endured. 

How often the shadow of death fell across 
Scotty's path during these adventurous years will 
never be know:i. Once many years later, when he 
was on a long trip in the Kalahari, a trip about 
^^ich I shall have more to s^ later, he 
recounted many of his more exciting adventures 



and experiences to his companion, Major C.A. 
Anderson. 

One evening, for example, as they were 
sitting round the cainp fire with their blankets 
alreacfy spread out on the deseit saud^ Scotty 
described a narrow esc^e from death ^^ich he 
had had in those far-off days. 

"I had carried out a most successful raid 
against the Stellaland burghers," he explained, 
"and had c^tured a useful bunch of cattle. I took 
them to Kimberley and sold them at a good 
price. Now, while I was there, a particularly fme 
horse which a young fellow was riding, took my 
fancy. I spent a few d^s in Kimberley and tlien 
decided to return home. It was a very hot 
afternoon vAien I set out and I was in no 
particular huny. Towards sundown, as I rode 
slowly along, I heard galloping hoofs and the 
next moment the young man I had noticed swept 
past me. 

"For some reason this aroused my suspicions 
and I had a sudden, instinctive feeling that I was 



in danger. I at once decided to get off the open 
road and to ride under cover of the thick bush to 
apiece of high gioundwhich lay ahead ofme. 

"I reached my objective without mishajj, tied 
my horse to a tiee, and then made my way on 
foot to reconnoitre the road below. Before I 
reached it I heaid voices. Tlie voices were 
speaking in the Taal, so I crept cautiously nearer 
until I could hear v^at they were saying. And 
then my worst fears were confuiued. There were 
three men below aiid they were obviously lying 
in ambush, waiting for me to appeal'. 

"I therefore crawled caiefiilly back until I was 
in a position to see them. Then jumpuig to my 
feet and levelling my rifle I shouted, "Hands Up!' 

"One of the men grabbed for his gun and I 
immediately shot him dead. The other man, and 
the youth who had passed me on the road, wisely 
obeyed my order. My first act was to disarm 
them. Then I mounted tbe youth's horse and rode 
back to \diere my own animal was fastened I 



switched horses and with my new acquisition in 
tow rode safely back to camp." 

But if Scotty bore a chaiined life, not all the 
freebooters were as fortunate. Close to the 
Transvaal's western border and not fai' from 
Massouw's camp at Manthe is a deep ravine, 
known as Honey's Kloof It was here that one of 
the toughest and most reckless of the filibusters, 
afler ^^om the kloof was subsequently named, 
met a sudden and violent death. 

James Honey, ^^o was fighting for Massouw, 
had had a bitter quarrel with some of his fellow 
adventurers over the distribution of booty and 
the division of land. He considered that he had 
been unfairly treated and tried to incite 
Massouw's Koranas to rise against tlie other 
filibusters. Even though he did not succeed in his 
object, this Was considered avery serious matter. 
When his fonner companions heaid what he had 
done they held a meeting and decided that there 
was only one punishment for such a treacherous 
crime. Accordingly a small commando of about 



six men set out to find the renegade and revenge 
themselves on him. 

After riding for some time across the 
Bechuanaland veld they came upon Honey. In 
spite of being taken by suiprise and outnum- 
bered, he resisted strongly. The odds, however, 
were too great. He was overpowered and trussed 
up. The commando then remounted and taking 
their prisoner with them travelled back until they 
came to a ravine out of wdiich gushed a small 
spring. 

Hei^ the men stopped as it was a hot day and 
they wanted to rest their horses and quench their 
thirst. Honey also begged for a drink and so they 
loosened the riem with which his wrists were 
tied. As he knelt down and cupped his hands in 
the water one of his c^tors raised his gun and 
shot him in the back of the head. Honey toppled 
slowly over and fell into the stream, dyeing it red 
with his blood. The commando then threw his 
saddle, with his raincoat still strapped to it, down 
beside the body and rode on. 



Some time later a couple of African herd boys 

found the coipse and reported their discoveiy to 
the authorities. The matter was referred to Sir 
Charles Warren and he ordered an enquiry. As a 
result the former commander of Massouw's 
European anny, SEuel Petnis Celliers, together 
with Gert van Niekerk and some others, was 
arrested and arraigned before the Landdrost of 
Vryburg, Rudolf Mull er, on a charge of murder. 
It was impossible, however, to find sufficient 
evidence for a conviction and they were all 
acquitted. The murderer was never actually 
discovered, but it wa.s" populaily believed that the 
man who iiied the fatal shot was named Erlaudt. 

The story of this bnital crime does not, 
however, end there. According to local legend, 
shortly after the tragedy a strange thing 
happened. To the amazement of the Africans 
living ai'ound Manthe the eye of the spring began 
to recede gradually down the kloof until vnthin a 
year or two it was at least fifty yai ds away. Yeai' 
afler year this process continued until it fmally 



came to rest about a mile from the scene of the 
murder. 

There was probably some prosaic, scientific 
explanation for thi^" phenomenon, but the 
primitive tribesmen entertained a much more 
picturesque theory. Tliey swore that the place 
was haunted by Honey's ghost, and that eveiy 
year, on the armiversary of the murder, a shot 
could be plainly heard in the vicinity. Nor would 
the most tempting bribe induce them to go 
anywhere near the spot after dark. 

"Tlie spirit that inhabited the spring," they 
told theii' children, "was very angry because the 
blood of the ^lite man had defiled his waters. 
So he went to live in another place." 

Chapter Four 

Stellaland apto Goshen 

By means of diversionary raids and harassing 
tactics Scotty managed to hold Mankaioane's 
enemies at bay for some months. The chiefs 
position was also strengthened about this time by 
the death of his Batl^in rival, Gasibone. Hie 



latter had been causing tlie Transvaal Govem- 
meiit so niiicli trouble that at last a strong 
commando was fitted out and a desperate 
attempt made to c^ture his stronghold The 
expedition was a failure, but for a few rolls of 
tobacco a Buslimaii muidered the chief, cut off 
his head and presented it to the Boer leaders as 
proof that he had fulfilled his mission. The 
resistance of Gasibone's tribe then coU^sed. 

This rid Mankaroane of one of his most 

inveterate enemies. Massoiiw's freebooters were, 
however, too numerous and too strong for Scotty 
to check indefinitely. Finally, in July 1882 a 
negotiated peace was airanged by "one-armed" 
Meiviile on behalf of the authorities in Pretoria 
under which a large part of Mankaroane's lands 
were taken away from him and were used to 
establish the Stellaland Republic. Tliis was 
fonnally proclaimed by Gert van Niekeiic with 
Vryburg as its coital, and in 1883 amid the 
jubilation of the freebooters its historic flag, a 
white star on a green background, was ceremo- 
niously hoisted. 



Stellaland was now nominally an independent 

State over \\diich the Trans^^aal exercised a kind 
of vague and ill-defined suzerainty. But in reality 
it was a republic run by the freebooters, ^^o 
were thus able to indulge in their illegal activities 
practically with out any interferen c e from th e 
authorities. Unfortunately for them, however, 
this state of affairs did not last long. Rhodes' 
worst forebodings appealed to be coming true. 
The two freebooter republics straddled right 
across the Missionaries' Road. If, as seemed 
likely, they were incorporated in the Transvaal, 
the Cape Colony's vital link with the interior 
would be finally severed. Both the Cape and the 
British Governments were seriously alarmed, 
especially as a new menace now loomed on the 
horizon. This was the growing threat of German 
expansion eastwards from its recently pro- 
claimed protectorate of South West Africa. 

So imminent was the danger that Rhodes, 
who had hitherto been extremely suspicious of 
the Imperial Govemiuent's intentions iu this area, 
because they clashed with his own personal 



ambitions for the Cfq^e, now strongly urged Her 

Majesty's Government to aiinex Bechnanaland to 
forestall the sinister designs of both the Germans 
and the Transvalers. 

At this critical stage the Stellaianders 
themselves brought matters to a head. They 
airanged for the union of the two freebooter 
states as a preliminary step towards their 
absorption into the South-A&ican Republic. The 
majority of these men were Boers and so 
definitely pro -Transvaal. But many of the 
English filibusters also favoured this step as tliey 
realised that there would be much more scope for 
their activities if they came under the weak, 
unsettled mle of Pretoria, rather than the fauly 
stable government of the Cape, in justice to 
Scotty it must be stated that he did not subscribe 
to thh view. On the contraiy he remained a 
feivent loyalist to the end of his life. 

In the meantime lawlessness and crime had 
reached such a pitch on the TVansvaal's western 
border that by mutual agreement a British and a 
Transvaal commissioner were ^pointed to co- 



operate in the maintenance of peace and order on 
both side&" of the frontier. Tlie man selected by 
the colonial seci^taiy as the British nominee was 
the Keverend John Mackensie, one of those 
zealous, political missionaries ^10 did so much 
to inflame English -Afrikaner relations in South- 
Africa during the nineteenth century. He was 
impulsive, prejudiced, self-opinionated, tactless, 
and took little trouble to hide his violently anti- 
Boer feelings. 

The »ew commissioner airived at Viyburg in 
July 1884 and instead of caiiying out the work 
for ^^ich he had been appointed he immediately 
took strong political action. On his own authority 
he accepted Montsioa as a British subject^ 
declaied a protectorate over the new republic, 
pulled down its one-star flag and hoisted the 
Union Jack in its place. 

Most of the freebooters were fiirious and 
wanted to resist the proclamation by force of 
arms. They even threatened to throw Mackensie 
bodily out of Stellaland. This would not have 
proved a very difficult feat, because the only 



police detachment he had available to maintain 

law aiid order in this vast aiea consisted of a 
Major Lowe aiid two or three constables. 

At this critical juncture, when the fate of the 
new protectorate lay in the balance, Scotty Smith 
undoubtedly saved the situation. He announced 
that he was prepai ed to accept British nile, and 
forthwith disbanded his private army. Some of 
his own men were bitterly opposed to his action. 
Turning against their leader they openly accused 
him of cowai'dice and for a time it looked as 
though blood would flow. But Scotty kept his 
head. Realising that British control of the 
country was bound to come, he decided that it 
would be fiitile to nin his head against a stone 
wall, and so he submitted to the inevitable. 

Scotty, who in his time played many paits, 
now assumed an unusual role, that of a reformed 
character. He regulai'ly attended the open-air 
meetings which Mackensie held in the courtyaid 
at Vryburg to explain his policy, and he even put 
in an ^qipearance at the minister's Sunday 
evening services. There he would sit quietly at 



the back of the congregation until the service 
was over. Then he would be among the fnst to 
slip out. The commissioner, who had not yet 
made his acquaintance, often wondered who this 
serious-looking, well-behaved wor^ipper was, 
and so one day he asked someone to identify 
him. 

"Don't you know?" was the surprised reply. 
"That's the famous Scotty Smith." 

Now just about this time considerable activity 
was taking place in the Rooi Grond, the turbulent 

Trans^'aal ajea just across the border from 
Goshen. Here large numbers of fieebooters, 
known as the Rooi Grond volunteers, were 
gathering, obviously with the intention of 
making another attack on the unfortunate 
Montsioa. 

Meanwhile news of what was h^pening had 
reached the Cspe Government and instructions 

had been sent to Mackensie to report on the 
matter. He was therefore anxious to obtain the 
services of a reliable man whom he could send to 



the troubled area to make the necessary on-the- 
spot investigations. While instituting discreet 
enquiries, with this object in view, he was 
informed by several people that Scotty was tiie 
ideal choice for the job, as he was "the one 
person who could go an^^vhere unnoticed and 
whose presence or dis^peaiance never seemed 
to create any surprise." 

On hearing this he sent for Scotty, and on a 
bright moonlight night a strange meeting took 

place -a meeting between the representative of 
Her Majesty the Queen and the notorious cattle- 
lifier and filibuster. 

Scotty, who was very sensitive to atmosphere, 
soon appreciated the fact that his bad reputation 
had preceded him and that Mackensie was not at 
all ceitain whether he could trust him. Now 
Scotty was one of those men ^10 take an instant 
liking for, or dislike to, people. In this paiticular 
instance he ^proved of the commissioner and so 
went out of his way to make a favourable 
impression on him. In fact he trinied on the 
charm so successfully that the Rev. Mackensie 



was completely won over and decided to take 
Scotty into his confidence. 

"T want you to go to the Rooi Ciirond," he 
explained, "and find out exactly what's going on 
there." 

He made a point of stiessing the danger 
involved and of warning the outlaw that he 
would be taking his life in his hands. Perhaps he 
instinctively realised tiiat nothing else he might 
s^ could possibly prejudice Scotty more in 
favour of the scheme. With a smile the latter 
readily agreed to the commissioner's proposal. 

"You'll have heaid a gieat deal against me." 
he remarked. "I'm not defending myself, but one 
thing I will say, you've never heard that I've 
broken my word, or distressed poor people." 

"Well, Geoi^e Lennox," Mackensie answer- 
ed, "I heai' what you say and I know what you 
mean. If in my heart I had thought hopelessly of 
you or very distrustfiiUy, I should not be stand- 
ing here. It's quite tine that I've heard i^at is 
being said about you, while I believe you have 



been at all my meetings in the courtyard and 
know exactly what my object is in the countiy. 
Now speak honestly and steadily the word which 
you ^11 uphold. Will you willingly help me if I 
can show you how you can do it?" 

"Yes, I'm willing to help you, sir," Scotty 
replied, without any hesitation. 

"But suppose," Mackenzie repeated, "I wanted 
you to do what was difTicult, even dangerous, 
keeping always in mind the objects ^^ich you 
know me to have in the country. Would you still 
feel inclined to assist me?" 

"I'm quite willing to take orders &om you," 
the outlaw declared in a firm voice; "and a^; to 
anything dangerous, I will risk my life for you. 
Dont distrust me. I say it and I mean it." 

"There was an unexpectedly strong expression 
of fiieiidly feeling from such a quarter," 
Mackensie subsequently wrote when describing 
this interview. "And I felt certain it was genuine, 
rd been told at Vrybur^ in that I'd been 

shaking hands with some queer people. I now 



gave my hand to one of the queerest, a man, 
however, who I felt at the time took it in good 
faith and certainly did not break his word to me. 
Scotty actually undertook ^^at he had promised 
to do." 

Shortly afler this Scotty dis^peared from his 

usual haunts in Taunes. and slipping unobtni- 
sively across the frontier made his way to the 
Rooi Grond. There, taking his life in his hands, 
he went about his work, unrecognised and 
unmolested by the freebooters, who would have 
given a great deal to have laid their hands on 
him. Then just as silently as he had come he 
vanished, re-crossed the border, and one day re- 
i^peared in Viyburg. He reported to the commis- 
sioner and, afrer giving him a iiill, compre- 
hensive account of his discoveries, quietly 
resumed his normal life. 

Mackensie was highly delighted with his 
agent's report and formed so high an opinion of 
his c^abilities that he decided to ^point him a 
sub-inspector of Native police. Scotty, who had a 
keen sense of humour, must have ^preciated the 



irony of the proposed ^pointmcnt, ^^ich would 
have made him aii ofFicial upholder of the law he 
had so often flouted. But unfortunately it was not 
to be. Political events in die border areas were 
moving quickly to a climax. 

Tlie Rev. John Mackensic's action in overt- 
hrowing the Stellaland Republic had caused 
tremendous resentment in the Transvaal. In 
addition his arbitrary and unauthorised conduct 
had taken the British Government completely by 
surprise. It strongly disapproved of what he had 
done and decided on a complete reversal of his 
policy. Tlie commissioner was therefore r^iped 
over the knuckles, ordered to lower the Union 
Jack, and instiucted to restore the status quo: 
Finally he was recalled and replaced by no less a 
person than Cecil Rhodes. 

Before taking up his appointaient, the new 
commissioner was preceded by the Lnperial 
Secretary, Capt. Graham Bouwer, who was told 
to have preliminary talks with the Boer leaders in 
order to arrange a peacefiil settlement of the 
^^ole matter. Bouwer met Lang Jan de la Rey 



and Gert van Niekerk on the banks of the Harts 
River and handed over to them, as a gesture of 
friendship, the Stellaland ilag, which he had 
brought from the C^e with him. Once again the 
Union Jack was hauled down and the freebooter 
ensign hoisted in its place. 

In spite of this the Imperial secretaiy had a 
somewhat mixed reception. Feelings were 
running high and on one occasion he was 
surrounded by a number of Boers who threat- 
ened to .s'hoot him. Most of the filibusters, 
however, treated him with respect and some of 
them even expressed feelings of goodwill 
towards the Queen and a desire to remain British 
subjects. 

In a further attempt at reconciliation Bouwer 
played what he thought was a trump caid. He 
ordered the arrest of the Boers' arch-enemy in the 
field, Scotty Smith. The latter was sitting in his 
favourite resting place on the bar counter of Loo 
Abrams' store in Taungs when the ofEicers of tiie 
law arrived. 



Although he could easily have resisted, as he 
was siiiTounded by his friends, he did not do so 
but went quietly. Some of his gang were, 
however, fiirious and wanted to make a fight of 
it. In fact it was only with the greatest difficulty 
that they were re^'traiiied from attacking the 
police. The charges against the accused were that 
he had shot and killed a Boer and that he had 
taken part in araid on Massouw's cattle. 

Scotty himself made no attempt to deny these 
accusation but simply alleged that the Boer had 
fued fust and that he had acted in self-defence. 
As for the raid. Major Tylden has ^tly pointed 
out that, "If half the repoit^" ai e tnie the bulk of 
the Stellalanders aiid Goshenites could have been 
airested on similar chaiges." 

After his detention Scotty was lodged in the 
Kimberley jail but was soon released as there 
was no reliable evidence to support the allega- 
tions made against him. In this way the old 
rogue, who had so often escaped the just 
imprisonment which he richly deceived, was 
now considered by his followers to have been 



unfairly persecuted by the law and wore for a 
time, with a good deal of unction, a martyr's halo 
round his unrepentant head. 

On another occasion Scotty is reputed to have 
been arrested on a double-murder charge. A 
fanner and his son had sworn to kill him. They 
got on to his trail and for day&^ tracked him down. 
Eventually they caught up with him at Boets^. 
But Scotty had become suspicious and he was 
prepared for them. A fight took place and he shot 
both the men. He was i^prehended by the 
Ghiqu aland West authorities and taken to 
Kimberley for trial. When the police, however, 
returned to the scene of the tragedy they found 
that the bodies had vanished. As soon as their 
backs were tunied, some of Scotty's gang had 
spirited the corpses aw^. With this material 
evidence missing the proceedings were 
summaiily dropped. 

In the meantime Rhodes had arrived at 
Vryburg and &om there had proceeded to 
Niekerksrest on the Halts River, where he had 
his historic meeting with De la Rey, Van 



Niekerk and the other Stellaland leaders. When 
he rode into theii' eucauipment early one 
monimg he found them in an ugly mood. He 
greeted Dc la Key and then suggested the 
desirability of coming to a peaceful agreement. 
The latter, however, was looking for trouble. 

"Blood must flow," he growled. "Blood must 

flow." 

But Rhodes was equal to the occasion. 
"Nonsense," he retorted. "Vm hungry. Give me 
my breakfast first and then we'll talk about 
blood." 

This appeal to the traditional Boer ho&^pitality 
had the desired eifect. The ice was broken and 
they sat down to a meal together. Over coffee the 
Boer leaders' aggressiveness and suspicions 
gradually fell away. Soon they were on the 
friendliest of tenns and Rhodes actually stayed 
in the camp for a week and became godfather to 
De la Rey's grandchild. Afler this there was no 
further difficulty in arriving at a satisfactoiy 
settlement. Rhodes guaiauteed the freebooters 



possession of their farms and cattle, and in return 
they agreed to accept British rule. 

And so for a time an uneasy peace settled 
over Stellaland. Further north in Goshen, 
however, the sporadic fighting continued 
unabated There Montsioawas again getting the 
worst of matters. Eventually he was forced to 
surrender practically all his lands to the 
freebooters. Gey van Pittius took charge and 
declared the countiy Transvaal tenitoiy, while 
S.J. du Toit triumphantly hoisted the Vierkleur, 
on the very same day Paul Kruger boldly 
annexed Goshen to the South-African Republic. 

Immediately the fat was in the fire. There was 
a tremendous outciy at the Cape and the Prime 
Minister, Cecil Rhodes, asked for British 
inteiveiition in this ai'ea. 

At the time Scotty happened to be on the 
diamond fields on a private matter of his own. 

When he heaid that a mass meeting was to be 
held that night in the old Kimberley town hall to 
support Rhodes' action he decided to be present. 



Although his knowledge of the country was 

more extensive than that of most people, he was 
somewhat coniused about the political implica- 
tions of the recent events which had taken place 
there. In this he was not alone, as no one seemed 

at all ceitain whether the two republics really 
came under the British or the Transvaal sphere of 
influence. 

Scotty was anxious to get the position quite 
clear in his own mind so that he would know 
what action to take in the fiituie. He therefore 
called on his £iend^ Mr George Beet, a well- 
known Kimberley business man, pioneer and 
prospector, for ^^ose judgment he had the 
greatest respect. They discussed the matter fiilly 
and then Beet summed up the position as it 
speared to him : 

"I jocularly declared the country to belong to 

any grabber who was powerful and cute enough 
to hold it against all-comers." 

Scotty heaitily approved of these sentiments, 
and as an indication of how his mind was 



working immediately announced, "I vote 

British." He attended the meeting and showed 
that in addition to his other talents he could be 
quite an orator ^len the occasion warranted it. 
In an eloquent speech he stressed the urgent need 

for inten'ention and urged that a strong force of 
British troops should be dispatched without 
del^ to bring the freebooters to their senses. 
Similai^ speeches wei'e made by other members 
of the audience aiid a petition was drawn up on 
these lines aiid sent to the Cape. 

Shortly afteiwaids, amid a fervent wave of 
patriotism, Sir Charles Warren set out from the 
Cape with a laige expeditionary force for 
Bechuanaland. Although there was no fighting 
on the way, his anival in Viyburg eai'ly in 1885 
was greeted with tremendous excitement by 
those well disposed to British mle. and he was 
treated as a conquering hero. The majority were 
not, however, so easily satisfied with the w^ 
events were shiq^ing and Waneu, realising this» 
decided not to take aiiy chances. He therefore 
proclaimed maitiai law, forbade the citizens to 



be out in the streets afler 9 p.m., and prohibited 
the discharge of firearms. 

A few nights" later an event took place which 
threw the whole cainp into confusion. The 
officers were being entertained to a dance by the 
ladies of Vryburg "^^ile the men were enjoying 
themselves in various other ways. Suddenly a 
number of shots rang out. Instantly there was 
pandemonium in the town and the rumour 
quickly spread that the enemy were making a 
surprise attack on it. The general alann was 
sounded, the officers hastily left the dance; and 
the men stood to arms. 

It now became sqiparent that the firing was 
proceeding from a store which belonged to a 
young German merchant named Harry Schuch. 
A squad of soldiers was ordered to c^ture the 
building. Stealthily surrounding the premises 
they stomied forward and broke open the door. 
To their amazement they found that the sole 
occupant was the owner, and the reason for the 
shooting soon became ^parent. It hi^pened to 
be the Kaiser's birthd^ and the lonely young 



immigrant was celebrating this h^py event by 

drinking toasts to His Imperial Majestj' and by 
discharging blanks in his honour. Harry Schuch 
strongly resented the soldiers' untimely inter- 
ruption of his festivities. He strenuously resisted 
arrest. He was overpowered aiid, cursing wildly, 
was dragged outside, lashed to a wagon vdieel, 
and leA there for the night under guard to cool 
off. 

The next morning he was brought before a 
senior officer. When, however, he explained that 
he had been unaware of the proclamation and 
some of his fellow citizens spoke up on his 
behalf and gave him a good chai acter he was 
released without aiiy additional punishment. But 
this comic opera interlude was perh^s the 
nearest ^^ich any of the men of the expedi- 
tionary force ever got to a real fight during the 
\\iiole of the campaign. 

The Transvaal Govermnent's reaction to the 
arrival of Sir Charles Warren's force was 
immediate and dramatic. President Kruger in 
alarm withdrew his armexation proclamation and 



Du Toit was forced to haul down the Transvaal 
flag. Tlie southeni part of Bechuaualaiid, iu 
which Goshen and Stellaland were incorporated, 
became a Crown Colony ^lile the northern 
section was proclaimed a British protectorate. 

In this way the short-hved, inglorious rule of 

the freebooters cauie to a sudden and uiispec- 
tacuW end. A few of them remained to become 
respectable citizens in their old age. But the 
majority, infiiriated at no longer being able to 
carry out their nefarious practices under the 
cloak of patriotism, drifted off to more unsettled 
parts of the country. Most of these men 
eventually sought sauctuaiy in the Transvaal and 
the little town of Christiana on the Vaal was 
particulaily unfortunate in this respect. In fact 
ex-StellalanderE flocked there in such numbers 
and gave the place so bad a name that even when 
its more respectable citizens visited the diamond 
diggings they immediately came under police 
surveillance as possible I.D,B. suspects. 

The original inhabitants of Christiana 
naturally resented this ungodly intrusion into 



their midst. A meeting was held in November 

1885, at the President Hotel, to consider a 
proposal for the forcible ejection of the 
newcomers. But when it was realised that this 
would result in a shooting match the suggestion 
was abandoned and the proceedings broke up in 
disorder The ireebooters continued to flourish at 
the expense of the more law-abiding citizens and 
it was many years before the Republican 
Government was strong enough to take any 
effective action against them. 

Meanwhile in the north Massouw was still 
making a nuisance of himself. Eventually his 
sporadic but persistent raids on the fanners' 
herds and cattle forced the Transvaal authorities 
to take action. A punitive force of neaily a 
thousand men was raised and the Commandant- 
General himself, Piet Joubert, assumed 
command. Now Joubert was notor-iously 
cautious and was always anxious to avoid 
bloodshed if possible. When he reached Mamusa 
he therefore decided to open negotiations with 
the recalcitrant chief. 



Tliere was very little discipline in the Boer 

cainp, however, aiid some of the younger men 
were thirsting for a fight. Led by one of the more 
impetuous young commandants, P. A. Cronje, 
they climbed the hill to Massouw's fort and 
demanded his immediate suirender. A heated 
argument ensued... Suddenly a shot raiig out, the 
battle was joined, and a bloody fray took place. 
The fierceness of the fighting in this petty 
engagement can be gauged from the fact that 
within a few minutes ten white men had lost 
their lives. 

At the Battle of Mamusa, Massouw suffered 
an annihilating defeat. The chief himself and 
most of his councillors were killed. In additioo 
about one hundi'ed and fifty of his followers 
received fatal wounds and another hundred 
sustained less serious injuries. An extremely 
unfortunate aspect of the affair was that a large 
number of women and children, ^^o were 
caught between two fues in the general mix-up, 
were included among the dead and wounded. 



In this way Massouw's Korana tribe was 
completely broken up. Less than a hundred 
esc^ed unscathed and they were dispersed 
among the surrounding tribes and soon lost their 
identity. To-day the sole reminder of this 
sanguinary little affray is the town of Schweizer 
Reneke which was built near Mamusa and whose 
name commemorates two of the Transvalers who 
lost their lives in the battle, Captain C.A. 
Schweizer and Veldcomet G. N. Reneke. 

As for Scotty, the change of government in 
the Stellaland-Goshen Republics made very little 
difference to his mode of life. He remained a law 
unto himself. No one could prevent him from 
going his own way and doing exactly what he 
liked. 

CHAPTER Five 

Gun-runner AND I.D.B. Merchant 

The decade 1880-1890, which embraced the 
establishment and overtiirow of the two 
freebooter republics of Stellaland and Goshen, 



provided Scotty Smith witli a unique opportunity 
for displaying his own peculiar talents. 

During the intervals in the iiiteniiittent 
fighting in which his position as Mankaroaiie's 
ally involved him, Scotty found plenty of time to 
raid his neighbours' fanns, and in this way he 
built up ail unrivalled reputation as South- 
Africa's most dreaded horse and cattle thief The 
slightest rumour that he was operating in their 
neighbourhood was enough to send cold shivers 
down the faiiiiers' backs. Some of them would 
then hastily hide their best stock and finest 
horses in the most inaccessible ravines on their 
fanns. Others would double the A^can watch- 
men at their stables, and when these precautions 
proved unavailing they themselves would often 
take their turn, standing on guard all night, with 
fiilly loaded rifles, waiting for the raider and his 
men. 

Shortly after Warren's Expedition, Scotty 
bought a farm and a store at Kheis on the Orange 
River. But this was merely a blind to cover up 
his cattle-stealing activities, as he did very little. 



if any, actual fanning. Situated as it was on the 
fi'inge of the Kalahari Desert and in close 
proximity to the Bechuanaland and Cape Colony 
borders his ranch was an ideal base for his stock- 
raiding operations. Here he could safely hide the 
cattle he had purloined and have them re- 
branded and prepared for the Upington, Taungs 
and Vryburg markets. 

Another of these hide-outs Miiich Scotty had 
acquired was near the little village of Amalia, 
about twenty miles from Scliweizer Reneke. This 
place is still called Diewedraai, because it was 
here on the banks of the Harts River that he used 
to graze and fatten his stolen stock. 

This routine work, however, he usually left to 
his men. He himself continued to spend most of 
his time in Taungs, which he used as his head- 
quarters for indulging in every type of illegal but 
highly lucrative activity \\diich took his fancy. In 
this respect Scotty had catholic tastes and during 
these years his activities ranged from I.D.B. to 
diamond stealing, from highway robbery to gun- 
running, and from fraud to confidence trickery. 



One of his earliest and most profitable 

exploits about this time was his successful gun- 
running expedition into Basutoland. In 1871 this 
state had been annexed to the Cape. But its proud 
people had never really been conquered and 
many of the tribesmen still possessed their o\vii 
guns. In 1880, when the C^e Government tiied 
to disann them, they rose in rebellion. Ailer 
three yeais of fighting and an expenditure of 
£4,500,000 the Basutos were fmally defeated, 
and although they were allowed to retain their 
weapons a strict embargo on fiiture importations 
was imposed. Inevitably it became eveiy 
Basuto's ambition to possess an illicit firearm 
and he was prepai ed to pay a high price for the 
privilege. 

When Scotty heard of this he realised its 
possibilities fiom a money -making point of view 
and he decided to take a hand in the game. 
Having secured a large number of Snider rifles, 
muzzle-loaders, and sofl-nosed bullets, besides a 
quantity of powder and shot, he loaded these on 
to wagons and trekked across the Free State until 



he reached Ficksburg, close to the Basutoland 

border. Neai' this place there was a police post 
under a veldcomet and half a dozen men. Scotty 
stopped his wagons a short distance from the 
post and hid them behind bushes close to the 
road. Then he rode boldly up to the frontier. He 
was cordially greeted by the commander of the 
post and invited to have a cup of coffee. Ailer a 
\\diile, as they were sitting talking, Scotty 
lowered his voice and said in a confidential tone: 

"Look, Meneer, I've got some important infor- 
mation for you. I know a lot of gunrunning's 
taking place. Well, IVe found out that Scotty 
Smith's one of the chief culprits, and ^^at's 
more, I'll show you how he does it." 

The veldcomet was immediately all attention. 

'T wisb I could catch the rogue," he muttered. 
"It'd be a big feather in my cap." 

"As a matter of fact," his informant went on, 
"I've had a tip that Scotty's just run a cargo of 
guns into Basutoland and I know they've not 
been taken away yet. He's hidden them in a drift 



on the Caledon River, and die Basutos are 
coming to fetch them to-night." 

The ofEicer became very excited. 

"Can you show me die place?" he asked. 

"Yes," Scotty replied. 

" How far's it from here?" 

"About fifleen miles south I should say. I 

don't know wlietlier Scotty'll stil! be there of 
course, but he may be keeping watch, and as you 
know he's a pretty desperate fellow, so you'd 
better take a strong party with you." 

The veldcomet was greatly impressed by the 
chaim and plausibility of die genial stianger, and 
not for a moment did he doubt the truth of what 
he was being told- The Free Stale was having a 
great deal of trouble with gun-runners. They 
were very elusive aiid difficult to catch. If he 
could pull off this coup and c^ture the notorious 
outlaw as well, it would certainly redound 
greatly to his credit. 



He had, however, heard all about Scotty and 
his terrible reputation and so he decided to take 
no chances. He therefore ordered all his men to 
mount, and leaving the post to its own devices 
rode south with his guide. After a couple of 
hours' hard riding over rough countiy they came 
in sight of the diifl and Scotty held up his hand 
for them to stop. He and the veldcomet then 
dismounted and carefiilly reconnoitred the 
position. Finding no one in sight the police 
officer returned to his men and ordered them to 
picket their horses. Then they followed Scotty on 
foot to a bend in the river where diere was a 
wide pool of water next to the diift. 

"There," he cried, pointing dramatically to the 
Basutoiaud side of the river. "That's where 
they're hidden." 

"But surely," the officer remonstrated, "the 
powder'll be spoilt if he put it in there." 

"Don't woiiy," was the reply. "Scotty's a sly 
old bhd and he'd take good care to make the 
boxes watertight first." 



"Well, let's have a look anyw^," said the 

veldcomet and at a sign from him a couple of his 
men waded in and began probing about in the 
water. Suddenly one of them let out a yell. 

"There's something here all right," he shouted. 
"Feels like abox." 

"And here's another," the second man 
exclaimed. "Bring one of them out," the officer 
ordered. 

The two men concentrated on a paiticular 
box, but in fipite of their combined efforts they 
were unable to move it. 

'It's terribly heavy," tfiey panted 

"Of course," Scotty scoffed. "What d^e 
expect? You know ^^at guns weigh." 

Two or three more men now went to the 
assistance of their companions and together they 
slowly and laboriously diagged the box out of 
the water and up the bank. 

While they were preoccupied with this, Scotty 
wandered casually away until he had reached the 



bend in the river Rounding this he ran swiftly 

towai'ds the picketed horses, set them loose and 
stampeded them. Then mounting his own steed 
he galloped back as fast as he could to where he 
had left his wagons. His boys quickly inspanned. 
They diove the wagons safely past the deserted 
post to the rendezvous deep in Basutoland where 
his customers were waiting for him. 

In the meantime the veldcomet's men had 

managed to prize open the lid of the box, only to 
fmd that it was packed with river boulders. They 
turned to vent their anger on the plausible 
stranger but he had vanished. And now for the 
first time they realised how they had been duped. 
Nor was their anger lessened when they 
discovered that theii^ horses had dis^peaied and 
that they had a long and tiring walk ahead of 
them. 

Scotty next tiied his hand at tobacco 
smuggling. In those days tobacco was already 
being grown on a fairly extensive scale in the 
Rustenburg district of the Transvaal. Although it 
was produced and sold extremely che^ly, the 



RepublicRD Gov^nment, in its search for 
revenue, imposed very heavy taxes on its export. 
This naturally encouraged Scotty and other men 
of his type to smuggle tobacco into the Free 
State and the Cs^e, wdiere it fetched high prices. 

On one occasion he and some of his confede- 
rates loaded a number of horse wagons with 
tobacco and set out for the Colony. Everything 
went well until they reached the border near 
Christiana, But here they were stopped by a 
detachment of the Transvaal police, the famous 
Z.A.R.P.S. The wagons were searched and the 
contraband cargo was discovered. It was 
promptly confiscated, packed into one of the 
wagons and transported to the guard post at the 
diift across the Vaal. Then, as a precautionaiy 
measure, Scotty and his friends were separated 
and shut up in diOerent huts. 

In the middle of the night Scotty broke out of 
his primitive jail and released his fellow 
smugglers. They noiselessly in spanned the 
horses to the wagon containing the tobacco and, 
slipping past the sleeping sentry, crossed safely 



into the Free Stale. From there it was merely a 

routine matter to transport their load to the 
Colony, where they had no difficulty in 
disposing of it at a good profit. 

Scotty always kept his eyes open and one day 
at a horse sale on the Kimberley market square 
he noticed something which immediately 
aroused his suspicions. A couple of Jewish 
merchants were bidding on a very poor, badly 
conditioned horse. Now Scotty knew that these 
men were more concerned with I.D.B. than with 
horseflesli, and he wondered why they were 
taking so much interest in such an unprepos- 
sessing nag. He decided to find out aiid so, wlien 
it was led away by a Hottentot boy, he 
unobtmsively followed. 

He noted where the horse was stabled and that 
night he took up his post under a tree from where 
he could keep it under obseivation. Soon af^er 
dark he noticed that a number of lanterns had 
been lit and that there was a great deal of activity 
going on inside the stable. Creeping cautiously 
forward he reached a window and peered inside. 



To his amazement he saw thai the two merchants 

were forcing what looked like lumps of dough 
down the unwilling horse's throat. For a moment 
he was puzzled and then a slow smile flitted 
across his face as he realised that they had 

discovered a new Euid ingenious way of smugg- 
ling stolen diamonds across the frontier 

Scotty discreetly retired, got his horse, and 
"wiien some time later the Hottentot rode out on 
the doctored nag he followed at a safe distance. 
As soon as they had crossed into the Fiee State. 
Scotty rode up, commandeered the Hottentot's 
mount and sent its rider packing. Then he rode 
ofT until he had reached a secluded spot among 
some tiees. Here he dismounted and shot the 
unfortunate horse. He cut it open and, as he had 
guessed, found a number of diamonds in its 
stomach. 

Like most of his frontier contemporaiies 
during the 'eighties and 'nineties of last century, 
Scotty was fascinated by the lure of gold and 
diamonds. TTiere is plenty of evidence that, off 
and on, he spent a good deal of time on pros- 



pecting trips AA^iich took him to remote parts of 
the Transvaal and deep into the Bechuanaland 
Protectorate. With the optimism of the inveterate 
gambler he never abandoned the hope that one 
day he would strike it lucky, and although he 
was singu!ai1y unfortunate in this respect he still 
believed, right up to the day of his death, that the 
burning sands of the Kalahari Desert hid a 
veritable treasure house of precious stones. 

There is no doubt, too, that ^art from these 
legitimate attempts to get rich quickly, Scotty 
also indulged in that most lucrative, exciting and 
risky of all illegal pastimes, I.D.B. So tempting 
were the rewaids of success in this dangerous 
profession that in Hopetown, Boshof. Christiana, 
Taungs, Vryburg and other towns within a 
hundred-mile radius of Kimberley there were 
groups of men whose sole means of subsistence 
was associated with the stealing or illicit buying 
and selling of these valuable gems. And many 
otherwise highly respectable citizens, ^^o in the 
ordinary way would never have misappropriated 
a penny, succumbed to the lure of the shining 



stones, aud subsequently paid for tlieii' folly by 
expiating their sins on the Cape Town 
breakwater. 

So severe, indeed, were the penalties for 
failure" and so common were the tr^s set by the 
police, that anyone who wished to avoid a 
similai' fate did well to keep his own counsel. 
Scotty, highly secretive by nature, was certainly 
the last man in the world to speak out of turn. As 
a result we know all too little about his diamond- 
dealing activities, apart from a few anecdotes 
which have been handed down to posterity. 

Here, for example, is an account of how 
Scotty's quick thinking once saved a&iend of his 
from arxest and imprisonment. One day he was 
walking casually down a street in Kimberley 
when he saw a man hunying towards him with 
two other men, obviously plain-clothed detec- 
tives, hot on his trail. 



- The usual sentence was seven yeai's hard 
labour. 



"I at once realised," Scotty used subsequently 
to recall, "that he had some diamonds in his 
possession. I therefore held out my hand as 
though I was tiying to grab him. He immediately 
got the idea, and as he bnished past he neatly 
transferred a small packet to me. He then 
continued his hunied flight, while I", Scotty 
always used to chuckle at this stage, "had the 
satisfaction of walking past the minions of the 
law with the diamonds tightly clasped in my 
hand." 

Another stoiy told to me by a real old-timer 
concerns Scotty's famous encounter with a 
notorious Jewish diamond thief. Scotty was 
riding transport at the tune and happeued to be 
taking a load of goods from Kimberley to 
Winburg. He had only just left the outskirts of 
the town when he noticed a peddler walking in 
the road aliead and offered him a lift. Tlie 
peddler hesitated for a moment and then climbed 
on to the wagon. As they continued theii' journey 
Scotty noticed that his passenger appealed to be 
very neivotis. He kept glancing over his shoulder 



and showing other signs of anxiety. At last this 
got on Scotty's nerves. 

"What's the matter?" he asked. " Is something 
troubling you?" 

"No, no," cried the Jew. "IV^ nothing. It's 
nothing." But he continued to look behind him. 
They were nearing the border ^^en the peddler 
suddenly let out ashout of dism^. 

"The police!" he yelled "The police! They're 
after me." 

Scott>^ turned his head and in the distance he 
saw a small posse of men galloping hard in their 
direction. 

"Hide me. Hide me," pleaded his panic- 
stricken passenger. 

He flung himself flat on the bed of the wagon 
and Scotty quickly threw a sail over him and 
piled some boxes and packages on top, 
completely concealing him &om view. When the 
police rode up, their leader immediately asked 
Scotty ^^ilether he had passed a man on the road. 



"Yes," Scotty replied. "I saw a peddler some 

way back if that's the fellow you're after. Was he 
a small man dressed in a dirty corduroy suit and 
wearing a slouch hat?" 

"That's him," cried the police sergeant. "That's 
our man all right." 

"Whaf 5 he done?" Scotty asked. 

"Stealing diamonds," was the terse reply. 
"He's got quite apacket on him." 

"Well," Scotty continued calmly, although his 
heait was beatiitg a little faster, "if you want to 
catch him you'll have to retrace your steps. As 
soon as he saw me coming he branched off into 
the veld. Seemed to be in a bit of ahuny, too." 

"Whereabouts was this?" the sergeant asked 

eagerly. 

"You know." Scotty told him, ''about three 
miles back there's an ironstone koppie with a 
small dried-up vlei next to it." Hie policeman 
nodded "That's where I saw him turn off." 



"ThRiiks," the sergeant shouted, "well get him 
all right. Good-bye." aiid with a wave of his haiid 
he put spurs to his horse and, accompanied by 
his men, thundered back the way he had come. 

"So/' mused Scotty to himself. "This's veiy 
interesting. Dimnonds! Tliere should be some- 
thing in it forme." 

At that moment he stuck his hand in his 
pocket and felt a hard package, which had 
certainly not been there before. A slow grin 
spread over hiE face as he realised whal it was. 
Stooping down he whispered to the Jew, "I've 
put the police off the scent for the time being but 
you'd better lie hidden until we cross the border 
in case they return." 

Then Scotty carefully opened the parcel. He 
had not been mistaken. Inside it were a number 
of fairly laige diamonds. He did the package up 
again and slipped it into one of the wagon boxes. 
About an hour later they crossed into the Free 
State. 



"It's all right, now," Scotty called out. "You 
can come out. 

The Jew climbed stiffly &om his hiding place 
and stretched his limbs. 

"Please give me my packet back," he said. "I 
slipped it into your pocket when I thought the 
police might search me. 

"What packet?" Scotty mnocently asked "I 
dont know anything about a packet. You must 
be making a mistake. Look for yourself if you 
like." 

With growing dismay the peddler ran his 
hands over Scotty's person but found nothing 

and, in spite of his protestations, the latter denied 
all knowledge of the stones. 

This did not however, deter the thief from 
alternately waiiing, and uioaniiig, and threat- 
ening. At last Scotty could stand his lamentations 
no longer Grabbing Iiim by the shoulder he 
shouted: "IVe had enough of this nonsense. I hid 
you from the police and this's all the thanks I get. 
You accuse me of being a thief Clear out or I'll 



put a bullet through you, as sure as my name's 
Scotty Smith." 

A look of horror ^peaied on the peddler's 
face as he realised for the fii&'t time to whom he 
had entrusted his precious diamonds. Then 
without another word he jumped off the wagon 
and scuttled aw^ across the veld. 

Still another interesting incident in Scotty 
Smith's career as a diamond thief was recorded 
in a letter published in the Sund^ Times in 
1941, £'om a man vidio signed himself "Early 
Pioneer ". 

"One of his specialities." he WTote, "was what 
he termed easing those paities who had become 
possessed of diamonds in an illegal manner. He 
described to me on one occasion how he had 
'stuck up' a get -rich-quick individual whom he 
had been told was in possession of apaicel. This 
party was on his way from Kimberley to the Free 
State ^^iien Scotty held him ;ip by dropping one 
of his leaders in a four-in-hand. 



"Scotty proceeded to search for the parcel, but 
failed to fmd it, and the man kept on protesting 
that he had been misinformed. At last Scotty was 
on the point of giving up the search v\dien his 
Hottentot 'achter-iyer' said, 'Baas, take ofifthe 
cups of the caitwheels and see if the klips aie not 
to be found there'. They did so, and sure enough 
the parcel was there." 

But Scotty was not alw^s so fortunate. 
Diamonds are easy things to conceal and on at 
least two occasions he let a sma!! fortune slip 
through his fmgers. At one time he had a house 
in Taungs, v^ich was really nothing more than a 
one-roomed shack. 

"T was never in such a wliite man's house as 
that of Scotty," a &"oplusticated African once 
naively infoiiued the Rev. John Mackensie. "I 
saw nothing for sale. I saw no tools or any 
articles wdiich they were malting as tradesmen. I 
could see only guns and riding accoutrements." 

While living at Taungs. Scotty often put up 
casual travellers whom he had met at Loo 



Abrams' and ^^om he invited to his house for 
the sake of theii' company. One of the men he 
entertained in this way was an Irishman fiom 
Belfast who told him that he had been employed 
on the diamond diggings but that he had had 
enough of Kimberley and was clearing out for 
good. 

Afler spending a couple of nights with Scotty 
the man left for Christiana, A few d^s after- 
wards Scatty also h^pened to go to that town. 
There he leaiiit w!io his guest really was. The 
Irishman was an ex-detective. He had been sent 
afler a Jew who had cleared out with £10,000 
worth of stolen diamonds. He had been 
successful in f^jpr eh ending the thief, had 
searched him and had found the gems. Then the 
temptation had been too great. He had released 
his prisoner, pocketed the stones himself and had 
disposed of them in Christiana. 

So brisk was the trade in stolen diamonds at 
this time that some of the bigger men in the 
game employed European itmners to take their 
loot across the border into the Free State, the 



Transvaal or the Cape. These runners usually 
tiavelled on foot, so as not to excite police 

suspicion. 

One day when Scotty was staying in Bethle- 
hem a ragged, footsore Englishman arrived and 
shared his bedroom at the hotel. Only afterwards, 
wiien it was too late, did Scott}' discover that the 
man was a runner and that he had been carrying 
a large parcel of stones on his person. 

Apparently Scotty himself sometimes acted as 
a runner, if it were made worth his virile. In the 
following story, related to Hie by Mr G. Bergh of 
Kimberley, he was commissioned by a well- 
known firm of diamond merchants to take a 
parcel of illegal stones to Port Elizabeth. He set 
out from Kimberley on horseback, but before 
long some sixth sense warned him that he was 
being trailed by the police. He therefore changed 
direction aiid made for the Free State border, 
which was only a few miles away. 

Realising what he was up to, his pursuers 
tried to cut him off before he could reach the 



frontier But, putting spurs to his celebrated 
horse, Cricket, which was famous ahke for its 
ileetness of foot, its stamina aud its intelligence, 
he soon left them far behind and crossed safely 
into the Free State. The baffled Griqualand West 
police had to turn back, and with a feeling of 
relief Scotty was able to continue his journey in 
more leisurely fashion. Had he only known it, 
however, his troubles were by no means over. 

At the time Mr Bergh's grandfather^ Mr 
G.J.V. Bergh, was the Resident Magistrate of 
Colesberg. As soon as he heaid that Scotty was 
wanted by the police and was making for the 
Colony he came to the conclusion that he would 
probably tiy to cross the Orange River at the 
bridge leading to Colesberg. Accompanied by a 
couple of constables he therefore lay in wait for 
him on the Cape side of the river. 

Eventually a lone horseman appealed. He 
rode over the bridge, and as he got closer Mr 
Beigh noticed that his description tallied with 
that of the wanted man. As soon as he put foot 
on colonial soil he was seized and searched. The 



packet of diamonds was found on him and he 
was lodged in the local jail. 

The authorities in Kimberley were immedia- 
tely notified of what had happened and further 
instructions were awaited. These were not long 
in coming. To Mr Bergh's complete stupefaction 
a telegram aiiived to say that Scottj' Smith was 
to be released immediately and that no further 
proceedings must be taken against him. 

There is no doubt that the outlaw was 
extremely lucky to get off, but it was a long time 

before the puzzled magistrate discovered that 
political expediency had dictated the unusual 
instructions ^lich he had received. Cecil Rhodes 
was the Prime Minister of the Cape, and the 
chief men concerned in this unsavoury affair 
were not only prominent diamond magnates but 
also business associates of his. The parlia- 
mentaiy row that would have blown up had 
Scotty been brought to trial would certainly have 
done him and his paity no good. As a result the 
matter was hushed up and Scotty was allowed to 
go &ee. 



Hiis association of Scotty's with Cecil Rhodes 
is interesting because, as I shall explain later, he 
had no time for the great empire builder. In spite 
of this their palhs did sometimes cross. Tliere are 
persistent accounts, for example, of how Scotty 
once served a term of imprisonment on the 
breakwater as a result of being caught i^d- 
handed with stolen diamonds in his possession, 
and that he was subsequently released through 
Rhodes's diiect inten'ention so that he could act 
as guide to Sir Chailes Wairen's expedition on 
its march into Bechuanaland. I do not believe 
that there is any tmth in these stoi iesv On at least 
one occasion, however, Rhodes does seem to 
have given the outlaw a commission afier his 
own heart. 

On the Free State side of the Griqualand West 

border there was a place called Freetown, which 
was a veritable thorn in the side of the De Beers 
Company. Actually Freetown was nothing more 
than a collection of straggling diacks perched on 
the bare veld, but it housed a number of 
disreputable I.D.B. gangs which quite openly 



preyed on the diggings. At last their depredations 
became so blatant that something had to be done 
to remove the menace. Rhodes therefore sent for 
Scotty and engaged him to clean up the 
settlement. 

The latter selected a picked band of despera- 
does and one daik night they crossed the frontier 
and raided the town. So successfiil were they in 
smashing up the gangs and dispersing the I.D.B. 
merchants that they were given a substantial 
monetary reward by the directors of the De Beers 
Company. 

The Orange River Bridge affair had rather an 
unusual sequel. A fewyears later the magistrate's 

son Mr Oloff Bergh, who was practising law in 
Viyburg, was drinking sundowners with a friend 
in a local bar when a tall, bearded man walked 
in. Olo£fs friend, immediately recognised him. 

"Come over here, Scotty," he shouted, '1 wmt 
to introduce you to my friend, Mr Ber^h." 

Oloffheld out his hand, but to his suiprise the 
stranger momentarily hesitated before taking it. 



His action was so obviously unfriendly that 
Oloff asked him point blank ^lat he had against 
him. 

'Is your father, Mr Bereh, the magistrate who 
was at Colesberg?" Scott>' enquiied. 

"Yes," Oloff replied 

Scotty then told him what had h^peued and 
how he had resented his airest and detention. 
However, the matter had a happy ending as OlofF 
Bergh and he became fnin friends. According to 
Mr Bergh, Scotty often obtained large sums of 
money from his various dubious enterprises. He 
found it embarrassing to caiiy this about on his 
person and so he would deposit it in different 
banks and post ofUces under assumed names, 
and sometimes he would forget to reclaim it. 
Once he got to know Oloff Bergh well he ivould 
frequently entrust his money to him and ask him 
to keep it for him until things had quietened 
down and he was able to recover it. 

A further incident, in which Scotty is reputed 
to have played a leading role, concerns a Trans- 



vaal farmer vvho had managed to smuggle a 
wagon-load of tobacco into Griqualaiid West. He 
camped on the Kimberley outspan for the night 
but unfortunately for him the police had become 
suspicious. His wagon was searched, the tobacco 
discovered and he was lodged in jail. 

Wh en S c ott}" . wh o was on a visit to 
Kimberley, heard about this he went to see the 
prisoner. 

"If I get you off and save your tobacco," he 
suggested to the man, "will you give me half the 
profits?" 

The prisoner readily agreed to do this, and so 
Scotty called on a shopkeeper who had a 
storeroom fiill of chafif He bought the lot, and 
paid some Africans to bag it for him. His plan 
was to substitute the chaff for the tobacco, and in 
order to do this he had to ciicumvent the two 
constables ^^o had been lefl to guard the wagon. 
He therefore bought a bottle of brandy and that 
night about eleven o'clock he had a couple of 
stiff drinks and then dingged the real of the 



liquor. Pretending to be drunk, and waving the 

bottle in his hand, he weaved his way across the 
outspan to where the policemen were keeping 
their watch. 

"Wassa way to hotel?" he asked them. "Wassa 
w^?" They showed him and he wandered errati- 
cally off. A quarter of an hour later he was back 
again. 

"Wassa way to hotel?" he repeated. 

One of the policemen lost his temper "Stop 
pestermg us, you diunken loafer," he shouted. 
"Next time 111 have you locked up." 

"Orlright, orlright," Scotty muttered, and as 

he staggered off he dropped the bottle. 
Apparently quite oblivious of his loss he 
stumbled in the direction of the hotel, rounded a 
tree and collapsed to the ground. Immediately he 
raised his head and was just in time to see one of 
the policemen pick up the bottle, put it to his lips 
and take a long drink before passing it to his 
companion. Afler giving the drug sufEicient time 
to work Scotty strolled back to the wagon. Both 



the constables were dead to the world. Scotty 

now acted swiftly. Rushine back to the 
storeroom he roused the Africans who were 
helping him. They loaded the bags of chaff on a 
cart, pushed it to the wagon, substituted the chaff 
for the tobacco and packed the latter in the 
storeroom. 

Well satisfied with his night's work Scotty 
snatched a few hours' sleep and then attended the 
court where the Transvaal fanner was being 
tried. Tilings were going badly for him when 
Scotty, who had volunteered to give evidence, 
went into the witness box. 

"Your worship," he remarked. '1 think you 
shovild inspect the wagon. I examined it on my 
way here and its contents look like chaff to me, 

not tobacco." 

The court adjourned for an inspection in loco 
and Scotty's information having proved correct, 
the magistrate dismissed the case and the 
accused was set free. 



After a ^^ile the police began to take more 
aiid more interest in Scotty's diamond-dealing 
activities, and many attempts were made to tr^ 
him. But the old reprobate was very careful and 
much too wily to be easily caught. He did, 
however, have some fairly narrow esc^es. 

One evening, for example, a Coloured man 
turned up at his house and signed to him to come 
outside. After looking furtively around he 
opened » packet and showed Scotty its contents - 
a numbei' of small diamonds. The latter was 
immediately suspicious. But although he was 
certain that his visitor was a tr£^3 he decided to 
play a trick on him. He therefore pretended to 
examine the stones very carefully. Tlien shaking 
his head he exclaimed^ "No, take these away. 
They're much too small. I'm not interested in 
them." 

The Coloured man left, but nest day he was 
back again, this time with a single, fairly large 
gem. When he saw it Scotty's eyes lit up with 
excitement. 



"Ha! " he exclaimed, "that's more like it." 

He weighed the diamond, measured it, and 
then for a long time stood looking at it intently 
and memorising its exact shape. At last he told 
the man, "I haven^t got the money now, but if 
you come back next Friday I'll buy it." 

After he had gone, Scotty went inside and, 
taking a piece of alum. cai"ved it into the exact 
shape of the diamond. He had been careful to 
choose a night for the fmal meeting ^^en tiie 
moon set early and the light would not be very 
strong. 

The Coloured man duly kept his s^pointment 
and slipped Scotty the diamond. In the semi- 
darkness the latter glanced at it and quickly 
substituted the alum for the real gem. Then, with 
an angry exclamation, he gave the false stone to 
the man, and exclaimed, "You rascal, 111 teach 
you a lesson trying to tr^ me like this." 

Seizing him by the throat he gave him a good 
thrashing with a riding whip. At last the trap 
managed to break loose and ran back to the pair 



of policemen were waiting some distance 
away for him. Tliey immediately saw that Scotty 
had palmed off a fake on their employee. They 
momitcd their horses and rode post-haste to his 
house in an attempt to catch him with the real 
stone in his possession. 

But he had expected them to do this and wa&^ 
prepared. As soon as the trap's back was turned 
he placed the diamond in an empty sardine tin, 
which he threw on to a neai'by nibbish heap. 
When the police airived and seaixhed Scotty 
they could fmd no tiace of the missing gem. 
They were unable to take any action against him 
and had to retire baffled. 

Scotty's I.D.B. activities often took him to 
Kimberley wliere he was, by t!iis time, wanted 
by the police on a number of chaiges. And this 
is, periiaps, the most amazing fact of all in 
connection with his long and interesting career 
that he was able to move about open^ and 
almost witii impunity, even when there was a 
warrant out for his arrest and the officers of the 



law were only too eager to make his closer 
acquaintance. 

Mr E A. Fincham, who once lived a few doors 
away from Scotty in Viybuig and knew him 
well^ has testified that in the Stellaland 
republican days, although the police were 
frequently after him he made no attempt to hide 
himself. My father, who was in Kimberley 
during the late 'eighties, also used to tell me that 
on more than one occasion he saw the 
redoubtable outlaw walking about on the 
diggings without any attempt at concealment. At 
the time he was wanted by the Griqualand West 
police for anumbcr of offences. 

Once, shortly after he had arrived in the 
diamond city on a visit, Scotty suggested to the 
proprietor of the hotel where he was staying that 
he should accompany him on a visit to a certain 
businessman to \\4iom he owed some money. 
Tlie proprietor demurred. 

"T can't possibly go with yow" he remarked. 
'^Surely you know the police are looking for you. 



and I wouldn't care to be seen in your company. I 
think you're very foolish to show yourself like 
this." 

"Oh, that's not iiews to me/' Scotty reuiaiked 
nonchalantly. "They're always looking for me." 
And then quite unperturbed he went about his 
own affairs as though he did not have a care in 
the world. 

Sometimes Scotty's iriends would chide him 
for his foolhardiness in doing this and then he 
would roar with laughter, making no attempt to 

conceal his contempt fov the sen'aiits of the law, 
and pouring scorn on their efforts to ^prehend 
him. 

Chapter Six 

Cattle Lifter and Horse Thiee 

Scotty smith had a very soft spot for 
Kimberley and it was on one of his visits there 
that he cairied out what is probably the best 
known and most popular of all his exploits. 



It was a Salurd^ morning in the year 1884. 
The local auctioneer, Mr Goodchild, was holding 
a horse sale on the market square. Scotty 
h^pened to be among the spectators, although 
^parently no one recognised him. A number of 
animals were up for auction including a paiticu- 
larly fine black stallion. At these sales it was 
customary for prospective buyers to be invited to 
tiy out any steed which took their fancy, and 
Scotty decided to take advantage of this practice. 

He waited until Mr Goodchild had beeun his 
fmal chant: ''Going ... Going for the third and 
last time... Going... Going and then mounting the 
stallion calmly rode round the square, into Du 
Toitspan Road and out of sight. 

"Going.. ." the auctioneer repeated while he 
waited for the rider to re-appear, but nothing 
happened. For a minute or two there was an 
embairassed silence, and then the rumour spread 
like magic among the crowd that it was Scotty 
vfho had ridden off with the horse. Someone 
^^ispered the information into Goodchild's ear. 



"Gone," he shouted, "to Scotty Smith." And 
then, making the best of a bad job, he added, 
"Goue... but not forgotten." 

The ^^toiy does not, however, end there. Some 
months later Scotty walked into the auctioneer's 
office. "IVe come to for the horse I bought," 
he announced. 

Mr Goodchild was out, but a clerk accepted 
the money and gave him a receipt for it. Then he 
strolled over to the, nearest hotel. Standing at the 
bar counter was the auctioneer. 

"Where's the horse you stole &om me?" he 
yelled as soon as he saw Scotty. 

The latter staied at him for a moment. "You*d 
better be careful \^ilat you say," he remarked 
calmly. Then he stuck his hand into his pocket 
and produced the receipt. Goodchild looked at it, 
hai'dly able to believe his eyes. At last, seeing 
that it was genuine he stood peiplexed, not 
knowing v^at to do next. 

"Oh, well," he suggested at last," let's have a 
drink and forget it:" 



Scotty was agreeable and so the affair ended 

amicably after all, although people who knew the 
outlaw well believed that the auctioneer was 
extremely lucky to recover the money in this 
w^. 

Scotty had, however, still another matter to 

settle before he took his depaiture. After a few 
rounds he got up, left the bar and went to the 
hotel o£[ice. 

"You may probably have heard," he greeted 
the proprietor," ihst the last time I was here I had 
to leave in a hurry, I didn't have time to fix up 
my bill. IVe come to pay it now." He diew awad 
of banknotes &om his pocket and threw them on 
the desk. 

Another version of the Goodchild stoiy is that 
the auctioneer employed a number of expert 
Hottentot riders to show off the paces of the 
horses he was selling. But the black stallion was 
such a fiery animal that not one of them 
succeeded in staying on its back for more than a 
few minutes at a time. No sooner had a Hottentot 



mounted than he would be bucked high into the 
air and sent sprawling in the dust. 

At last the riders flatly refused to make any 

more attempts. 

"He'& got the devil in him," they grumbled to 

one another. 

At tliis stage Mr Goodchild asked for volun- 
teers from Ihe crowd. No one was prepared how- 
ever, to risk his iieck. It was then tliat a tall man 
walked slowly towards the horse, spoke to it in a 
low tone and ran his hand soothingly over its 
sweating flanks. The high-spirited animal quiet- 
ened down perceptibly and in a flash the man 
was in the saddle. Immediately all hell was let 
loose. Hie stallion reared, pranced and bucked, 
but its rider stuck to it like a leech. After a long 
stniggle he managed to biing it under control. 
Amid the plaudits of the crowd he galloped 
round the square, waved to the spectators and 
with afmal flouri&'h dis^peared down Du Toits- 
pan Road. As he vanished, someone let out a 



yell. "By Jove!" he shouted. "That's Scotty 
Smidi." 

There is also a brief but revealing sequel to 
this stoiy: For some yeais afteiwards, Scotty's 
faim at Kheifi on the Orange River produced a 
fine crop of beautiful black foals! 

On a subsequent occasion the famous outlaw 

pulled off the same type of trick, also at 
Kimberley, but this time the affair was nifich 
more complicated as he acted in a triple edacity 
as owner, seller and thief. 

At this particular sale the men disposed of 

their horses by private treaty, and so, in order to 
get the best possible price, each owner put his 
horse through a display designed to impress 
potential purchasers with its merits. Scotty of 
course enjoyed doing this and he staged a grand 
show. He made his mount dance about and do all 
kinds of fancy stunts, ^lich would not have 
disgraced a circus -trained animal. 

So impressed was one of the spectator^" with 
this performance that he immediately offered 



Scotty £50 for the horse, a very good price for 
those days. The man handed over the money and 
then Scotty said, ''Seemg it's now yours, I'll 
show you one more trick, the finest it can 
perform. In fact this is such a good one thai IVe 
kept it till the very last." 

With these words he mounted the horse and 
let it trippLe until it had gone half-way round the 
square. Then with a farewell wave of his hand he 
dug his heels into its sides and galloped aw^ 
with both the money and the horse. 

And hei e is another of Scotty's horse-stealing 
exploits, which is reputed to have taken place at 
Kimberley. In those days the diamond city was 
famous for its race meetings and Scotty with his 
fanatical love of thoroughbreds often attended 
them. On one occasion, after his aiiival at the 
course, he noticed a particularly fme animal 
under the care of a European groom. The groom 
was leisurely exercising his charge, and Scotty 
immediately lost his heart to it. He decided that 
he would not rest until it was his own property. 



so he sauntered casually up to its attendant and 
engaged him in conversation. 

As they strolled slowly up and down they 
kept passing a refreshment tent in which vai'ious 
kinds of liquor were being served. And it was not 
long before Scotty said to his companion, "How 
about a drink?" 

'T daien't." the groom rehictantly replied. 
'^There's a rumour that Scotty Smith's in the 
neighbourhood If d be more than my job's worth 
to let Black Diamond out of my sight for a 
minute." 

Scott}" pretended to think. At last he said, "I 
tell you what. TIL go in first and have a drink, and 
then you can take your chance and V\\ hold Black 
Diamond for you." 

The groom hesitated, but it was the middle of 
dimmer, he was hot and thirsty, and the tempta- 
tion was too great. 

"All right," he agreed. 'T wouldn't give him to 
anyone else but I know I can trust you." 



So Scotty went into the bar, had a couple of 

beers, aiid after awhile caiiie out again. Then the 
patched groom handed over the horse and 
slipped gratefully into the tent. 

When he re-^peaied a little later the stranger 
and Black Diamond were already miles aw^. 

Of course AA^ienever Scotty pulled off a stunt 
of this kind he had to leave town in a hiiny, and 
he had no time to pay his board and other debts. 
But it is a queer reflection on his strange 
conception of moral values that v^ile he could 
steal a horse he could not bilk an hotel keeper or 
tiadesman. As soon as matters had quietened 
down, it might be three or even six months later, 
and he returaed to town, one of the first things he 
did was to seek out his debtors and settle up with 
him. 

Scotty was a man of many moods. He was a 
good mixer when it suited him, and he usually 
got on very well with other people. If he really 
liked someone he might suddenly thaw and 
regale him with stoiy after stoiy of his vai ious 



exploits and escapades. But this was exceptional. 

As a nile he kept his o\vii counsel and was as 
taciturn and uncommunicative as the sphinx. An 
acquaintance of Scotty's informed me that just 
after the Anglo-Boer War he made a trip into 

Bechuanaland with the famous outlaw and that 
during the whole jouniey the latter never uttered 
a single word except in answer to a question. 
Tliis peculiai'ity of his is corroborated by Lt- 
Colonel H.F. Trew, the fonner Deputy Commis- 
sioner of South-African Police for the C^e 
Western area 

"I met Scotty al Upmgton in 1914," he wrote, 
"and had a long conversation with him. That is 1 
did most of the talking for he was very silent^ 
and when he discovered I was a police officer he 
refused to talk al all." 

He goes on to add: "A fiiend of mine spent 
three months in the Kalaliaii with Scotty, doing 
intelligence work for the Government before the 
war. He said that Scotty knew every inch of the 
Kalahari and that he was an intensely silent man. 



would often go all day without saying a 
word" 

Many other men who knew Scotty Iinve given 
similar testimony about thir^ outstanding trait in 
his character. In paiticnlai, Scotty bitterly 
resented any attempt to cross -question him about 
his life and experiences. Tlien he would shut up 
like a clam, and more than one journalist who 
tried to pump him for information for a magazine 
article was sent away disconsolate. 

Scotty was by nature essentially a lonely man. 

Sooner or later he would tire of his gang 
activities and the need for solitude would press 
heavily upon him. Then without a word to 
anyone he would mount one of his famous 
horses. Cricket, or Lieutenant, and slip off into 
the blue like a solitary Don Quixote, seeking 
adventures in all parts of Southern A&ica. On 
tliese trips he would ride fai' and wide across the 
veld or would penetrate deep into the Kalahari 
Desert. He would suddenly turn up in the most 
unexpected places, weeks, perh^s months later, 
he would re^pear in his favourite haunts in 



Taungs or Kimberley or "w^ierever his 
headquarters happened to be. 

This explains why so many of Scotty's most 
daiing exploits were peifbnned s in ele -handed. It 
also accounts for his extensive knowledge of the 
countryside a knowledge \^ich was ofien to 
stand him in good stead when he was haid- 
pressed by his enemies, the republican police and 
the German military authorities. 

On the v^ole the Boers, except of course 
those he victimised, had the greatest respect and 

affection for Scotty, and his quixotic kindness to 
the poor, the distressed and the ailing made him 
many :&iends. Moreover the farmers themselves, 
with their sturdy spirit of independence and 
inherent distmst of governmental control, were 
not as antagonised by his lawless acts as they 
might otherwise have been. In addition he was 
an outstanding shot, a fme horseman, an 
excellent judge of cattle, and a man of determ- 
ination and courage, all qualities ^lich the Boers 
greatly admired. 



As regards his shooting prowess, a :&iend of 
his told me that he sometnnes watched Iimi at 
target practice. He would lie on his back with his 
gun resting across his thigh, and in this position 
would shatter an empty beer bottle al 200 paces. 

Scotty certainly had a way with him^ not only 

with Europeans, but also with the vaiious noii- 
Europeau races the Bantu, Bushmen, Hottentots, 
Basters and Griquas with whom he came into 
contact. One of his favourite pursuits was to 
make long, sohtaiy expeditions into the KalaJiaii 
where he acquired a knowledge and under- 
standing of the Bushmen of the desert regions 
^^ich has been the privilege of very few ^^ite 
men. 

When he subsequently went to live among 
them and diey worked for him on his faiiu at 
Leitland's Pan he was able to add considerably to 
his knowletJge of these primitive. Stone Age 
people. The Bushmen are peiiiaps the shyest, 
most suspicious of all living human beings and it 
is probably Scotty's greatest achievement that he 
managed to win their trust and confidence. 



In return for the many kindnesses v^ich he 
showed them, they even shai ed some of their 
most cherished secrets with him. In this way he 
learnt the art of survival in the waterless wastes 
of the Kalahari how to fmd his way across the 
trackless" dunes, how to communicate with his 
Bushmen friends, how to interpret their desert 
signs and messages, and how to detect where 
their life-saving ostrich eggshells of water were 
buried 

One mystery, however, his Bushmen friends 
refused to divulge. This was how they obtained 
the deadly poison vsdiich they used for doctoring 
their aiiows. Scott>^ did eventually solve this 
problem, but not with their assistance. It was a 
young man named Drotsky, whom he had 
befriended, ^lo disclosed the secret to him. 

Scotty knew that Drotsky had grown up 
among the Bushmen, and so one day he asked 
him whether he knew how the little yellow men 
obtained the poison for their arrows. 



"Yes," Drotsky replied. "Come with me and 
I'll show you. 

They walked for some distance across the 
desert and then the young man suddenly stopped 
and pomted to a Commiphora kwebensis tree. 

"Ha," he exclaimed. "This is what I was 
looking for." He got down on his knees and 
began digging with his hands in the soft sand at 
the foot of the tree. Soon he had unearthed half a 
dozen cocoons. 

"You see," he explained to Scotty. "This is 
^^at the Bushmen use. Tlie Diamphibia beetle 
lays its eggs on the leaves of this paiticulai' t\'pe 
of tree. The gmbs hatch out, feed on the leaves, 
and in the course drop to the ground A^ere they 
burrow into the sand and nial^e their cocoons. He 
paused. ''We'll have to fmd something to 
experiment on," he concluded. 

They turned round and retraced their steps. 
They had not gone far before they saw a 
Hottentot with a mangy dog slinking at his heels. 
Drotsky gave him a few pennies for it. When 



they got home he made a small incision in the 
unfortimate animal's nimp. Then he cut open a 
couple of the cocoons and rubbed their contents, 
a yellowy mess, into the cut. So potent was the 
poison that within a short time the dog was dead. 

In spite of his I.D.B., his brigandage, and his 

other unlawflil activities, Scott^^'s main source of 
revenue for many years was derived from his 
cattle-raiding and horse-lifling excursions. 
Taungs was an ideal centre for these pursuits, as 
it was in close proximity to half a dozen different 
states. Scotty always had a convenient frontier 
across which he could slip v\dien the police of 
any paiticulai' countjy made things too hot for 
him. Before long he had a well-organised gang 
of desperadoes under his command and he used 
them to carry out spasmodic raids into the Cape 
Colony. Basutoland, the Free State, Griqualand 
West, the Transvaal and Bechuanaland. 

Besides these men Scotty had a number of 
partners. These he seems to have changed fairly 
frequently, but we know that from time to time 
he was associated with such tough characters as 



LoD Abrams, Long Jim, Stumke, Swaxt, George 

Pearson, Jack Foi^'ter, Big Mick O'Connor, 
Snowy Wai'd and Oiie-Aimed Jetty. 

Snowy Wai'd had a lanch oil die Molopo 
River, neai' Mafeking. This ranch was, however, 
nothing more than a blind to cover his real 
business, which was the smuggling of cattle from 
the Bechuanaland Protectorate into the Colony, 
Years afterwards, when someone asked Snowy 
how he had managed to dodge the police, he 
replied ciyptically. "We had our spies and they 
told us which door the police went in and which 
door they came out." 

Another man with whom Scotty had a good 
deal to do at various times was a q\ieer chaiacter 
named Jetty. Jetty was a tall, tiiin man, but he 
was extiemely tough andwiiy. On one occasion 
in 1887, he and Scotty were out together on a 
horse-lifting expedition. Among the places 
which they raided was the faim of a Mr 
Hartman, ^lich was situated between Diy Harts 
and Pudimoe in the Taungs district. 



They manned to steal some horses and were 
galloping off when the alaim was given, 
Hartman rushed out in a furious rage and without 
hesitation put his Martini-Henry to his shoulder 
and fired. Unfortunately for the thieves his 
temper did not affect his aim. The heai'y bullet 
struck the unfortunate Jetty in the Lefk aim. And 
although he and Scotty managed to escape, the 
limb was so badly shattered that he had to have it 
amputated above the elbow. His narrow esc^e 
&om death did not deter the maimed Jetty from 
carrying on with his illegal pursuits. 

Oom Frikkie Bouwer, an old gentleman living 
at Vryburg, wiio related the above story to me, 
also once had a personal encounter with the 
redoubtable Jetty, in which only his refusal to be 
overawed saved him &om being swindled by the 
one-armed bandit. 

'Tt was in 1904," he explained, "and I was on 
my way from Vrybui^ with a troop of fifty 
horses wdiich I wished to sell at Keetmanshoop. 
One day I was riding in front, and I was feeling 
so tired and drowsy that it was only with the 



greatest difficulty that I manned to keep awake 
and maintain my seat. We were passing quite 
close to Scotty's place at Lieutenant's Pan. I was 
nodding in die saddle ^len all of a sudden I was 
rudely disturbed by a loud hail: Hullo, wdiere are 
you making for?' 

"T miife't admit I got a tenible flight, but I 
stopped my horse and looked up. There was 
Jetty, 

"IVe an order for ten horses,' he told me, ^and 
I want to pick nut some of yours. It's quite all 

right/ he waved aside my protests, 'youVe 
nothing to wony about as I'm prepaied to pay for 
them. All you have to do is to call in at 
Lieutenant's Pan and my partner, Scotty Smith, 
will give you the money.' 

"But I wasn't going to do anything as fooh&'h 
as that and so I refused point blank, much to 
Jetty's annoyance. There was, however, nothing 
much he could do about it, because I had three 
servants with me. After a while he rode off And 
it was a good thing, as I subsequently 



discovered, that I hadnt done any business with 
him. 

"I reached Keetmanshoop safely, disposed of 
my horses, and on the retuni trip stopped at 
Scotty's place. When I told him what had 
happened he laughed. 'Jetty and I parted 
company a long time ago,' he said. It was pure 
bluff on his pait'." 

The two ex -partners eventually made up their 
quarrel, and although they never worked together 
again they became good friends, and Jetty used 

to visit Scotty frequently when the latter was 
living in retirement at Upington. 

A man much to Scotty's liking was Loo 
Abrams, ^lo ran a store and hotel at Taungs. He 
and Loo were partners in a prospecting 
syndicate, whose investigations aie known to 
have covered avast area in British Bechuanaland 
and the protectorate. In this connection he 
probably did most of the field woik, wdiile Loo 
organised and fmanced the expeditions. 



For a long time, Scotty made Abrams' hotel 
his headqii alters, aiid there, sitting on the bai' 
comiter, he would plan the coups ^^iiich were to 
make his name a household word in South- 
Afiica. Often he would work these out in detail 
and then entmst their execution to his 
lieutenants, while he went off on some excursion 
of his own. 

Scotty was a bom leader, and much of the 

success of his enteiprises hinged on the fact that 
he had a flair for picking the right people to work 
with him. As Major G. Tylden puts it, ''He was a 
great judge of men of all colours, as witness his 
lieutenants, all, like himself, said to be temperate 
men in a couutiy of heavy drinkers. However, let 
no one exaggerate the meaning of the word 
temperate'. They probably all took their ^lack. 
Scotty ceitainly did. but they had the rare virtue 
of knowing how luvich they could caiiy." 

In this connection Colonel W.H.C. Taylor 
told me of rather an amusing incident. Towards 
the end of the Boer Wai' he was a lance-corporal 
in the Cape Mounted Police and was staying at 



an hotel in Kimberley. One dwy he was 
awakened by a teirific din. He mslied out and 
found that Scotty was the cause of the 
disturbance. Clad only in his night shirt he was 
shouting, cursing, and yelling for the wine waiter 
to serve him. It was six o'clock in the morning! 

It is a strange fact about Scotty's cai'eer that, 
although his main illegal activity was cattle- 
raiding, and during his time he must have run off 
thousands of head of stock, there are very few 
stories about his exploits in this respect, although 
there are numerous anecdotes about his horse 
thefts. 

One of the few recorded episodes, linking 

Scotty Smith with cattle lifting, was his clash 
with Gericke, a wealthy Viyburg fanner and 
rancher. Gericke specialised in cross-bred short- 
horn stock. He was extremely proud of his herds, 
and was very fond of bragging about them. 

Once he was extolling their virtues to a 
stiimger wlio had turned up at his homestead and 
was spending the night there. Now the stranger. 



unknown to Gerickc, was Scotty's associate, 
Snowy Waid. Geiicke went on boasting about 
his marvellous shorthorns to such an extent that 
at last Snowy could not resist the temptation of 
s^ing: "You know, Mr. Gericke, I think you're 
tempting providence by talking like that. 
Suppose Scotty Smith gets to hear ^out your 
wonderiiil animals." 

"Scotty Smith!" Gericke scoffed "I'd like to 
see him or any other cattle-rustler get away with 
my property." 

"I believe you're a bit of a gambler," Snowy 
remarked. "Well, I'm prepared to wager that 
Scotty'll run off a bunch of your cattle ^^enever 
he wants to." 

"Done," Gericke roared, 'that'll you bet?" 

"We'll arrange it like this," Snowy Waid 
replied. "If Scotty succeeds, be keeps the cattle 
and you can pay their value in cash to charity. If 
he fails, he'll give a similar amount to the poor." 



This seems some^^at one-sided. Gericke, 

however, was a l ich man and in ai:y case he was 
absolutely certain be could deal with Scotty. 

"Right," he cried. "But there must be a time 

limit. How about a week?" 

Snowy agreed and then left to see Scotty. 
Gericke immediately doubled the guards on his 
ranch and took certain other precautionary 
measures. All these, however, proved to be in 
vain. A few days later ^^en he counted his herds 
he found that there were about filly head of 
cattle missing. Scotty. with the aid of his 
Bushmen tiackers, had taken advantage of a 
pitch-daik night to visit the farm and to cut out 
the beasts he required. 

On discovering his loss Gericke immediately 

sent out search paities in aii attempt to recover 
the stolen animals but ail his attempts to find 
them were fruitless. Scotty's men had already 
driven them safely into the desert. There his 
gang re-branded them and tlien sent them 
through Mafeking to Johannesburg where they 



were sold on the local stock market at a good 
price. Scotty gave Snowy his cut and retained the 
rest of the money for himself It is to Gericke's 
credit tliat he was a good loser. He kept his word 
and gave the sum agreed upon to the authorities 
for distribution among the poor of the district 

This is one of the few melotlramatic cattle- 
raiding exploits of Scotty's which have been 
handed down to posterity. On the otber hand 
there are dozens of dramatic stories about his 
horse-stealing activities. This is understandable 
because horses were a much more personal 
possession than cattle. To-day, in this motor- 
ridden age, it is ahnost impossible to appreciate 
the bonds of tmst, confidence aiid affection 
which existed between a man and his favourite 
mount. Men br^ged about the excellence of 
their horses, about their appeaiance, their 
stamina, their speed, their sagacity and their 
faithfulness, and it was every young farmer's 
ambition to possess the finest steed in the 
district. 



With Scotty, hordes were an absolute mania. 
He no sooner saw an outstanding animal than he 
was itching to put his bridle on it. As a result he 
was continually engaged in duels of wit to 
acquire an animal ^lich had taken his fancy, but 
wliich its owner would no more have thought of 
selling than he would have considered disposing 
of his wife. 

Take for example the following tbree 
episodes, which are typical of the methods that 
Scotty employed to get what he w^anted. The first 
of these occurred in Viyburg and the other two 
in Hopetown. 

One evening in the bar of a Vryburg hotel the 
subject of Scotty Smith and his various exploits 
cropped up. One of the men. a young farmer, 
boasted that he would be too clever for the 
outlaw and tbat the latter would never manage to 
steal hor&^e. Now standing on one side was a 
tall, well-built man, who had hitherto taken no 
part in the conversation: Although no one 
recognised him it was Scotty Smith himself. 
Suddenly he addressed the last speaker. 



"Looks to mc as though you're tempting 

providence," he lemaiked. "If Scotty were to 
hear what youVe just said you'd be likely to lose 
that horse of yours." 

"He'd have to be a smart one to get the hetter 
of me," the man scoffed. 

"Is Aat so?" Scotty Smith replied. "As it 
h^jpens. I know h'm\ well. I'll tell him what you 
say and I'm prepared to bet you £5 that within a 
fortnight he'll have made off with your horse." 

The farmer accepted the bet and they each 
deposited £5 with the barman, ^^o ^reed to 
hold the stakes. The ouiier then took his 
companions along to the stable to show them that 
the door was securely padlocked and that his 
own Basuto groom was on guaid. About 
midnight, when the company had dispersed, 
Scotty slipped outside. He had a bottle of brandy 
in his hand and as he approached the guard he 
stopped and, putting the bottle to his mouth, took 
a long draught. 



"Want a drink?" he asked the boy, \^o was 
feeling cold and miserable. 

"Ja, Baas," was the eager reply. 

Scotty sat down and the bottle passed quickly 
fi'om one to the other. Before long the Basuto 
was so diimk and sleepy that he lay down and 
l^sed into a comatose state. Then Scotty acted. 
He picked the lock, opened the door aiid led the 
animal out. Mounting his own horse he rode 
away with the other animal on a lead. It is typical 
of Scotty that he was quite prepared to sacrifice 
the wager money in order to teach his opponent a 
lesson. 

On a particularly hot summer's day Scotty 
rode into the dusty little village of Hopetown and 
made straight for the bar. 

As he entered the hotel his quick eye took in 
the half-dozen horses tied to the rail. 

"Give me a brandy," he ordered the baiman. 



He was drinking it when one of the men 
turned to him and asked, "Have you seen Scotty 
Smith lately?" 

"No," he replied "Why?" 

"He's stolen some of oiii' horses," the man 
explahied, "and we're looking for the scoimdrel." 

Scotty downed his brandy and ordered 
another. He took one gulp and put the half-empty 
glass on the comiter. Then he called to the 
baiiik iui, ''Give all these gentlemen another 

round. The drinks ai'e on me." 

As they thanked him he remarked, "Excuse 
me for a few minutes. I must see to my horse. I 
wont be long." 

He pmd for the liquor and then, leaving his 
unfmished glass behind, he went out. Time 
passed and he did not return. At last one of the 
men became suspicious. He opened the door and 
looked ai'ound. There was not an animal in sight. 
He gave the alarm and the men, cursing and 
swearing, rushed into the street. Unfortunately 



for them Scotty had vanished and they never saw 
their horses again. 

The third incident shows Scotty m a much 
better light. It also happened in Hopetown at the 
same hotel, but some yeais afterwaids. Scotty 
was chatting to a number of farmers in the bar 
vAiGii one of them remarked, "You fellows had 
better look after your horses. I heai^ Scotty's 
operating in the neighbourhood." 

Immediately another farmer, vfho owned a 
particularly fme stallion, put in: "He'll never get 
my horse. I'm much too care&l of him, and I 

guai'd him night and day." 

When Scotty heard this remaric he made his 
way casually towards the speaker. 

"How about a game of n^?" he asked. 

The man was agreeable so Scotty took out a 
pack of cards and they began plying. 

As the game went on, however, the owner of 

the horse found it difficult to concentrate and it 
was soon obvious that he was becoming 



increasingly uneasy about the safety of his steed. 
At last he could stand it no longer. In between 
hands he got up, went outside and put a lead on 
hiE horse. Then he pinched the lead fast in the 
door and holding its end in his hand sat down to 
continue playing. Some time later Scotty made a 
conventional excuse and himself slipped out. 
When he failed to return the farmer jumped up, 
and to his consternation found that he was 
grasping an empty thong. Scotty had cut the 
other end and had dis^peai ed witli tlie horse. It 
was a pitch-dark night and, realising the futility 
of pursuit, the man went to bed 

The next morning he was up eaily, but 
naturally there was no sign of his beautifiil 
stallion, and so he made his way sadly home. 
About a mile from his house he suddenly 
stopped and, hardly able to believe hi? eyes, let 
out a yell of amazement. There, fastened to a 
tree, was his horse waiting for him. A note was 
tied to its saddle. He unfolded this and read: 

"I can see that you love your horse and take 
good care of it. You have an excellent animal 



and I know how you must be grieving for it. I 

haven't the heart to keep it. ?o I'm returning it to 
you. But next time dont be quite so certain that 
Scotty can't get aw^ with your property if he 
wants to." 

That was one man ^lo lived to bless the day 
that the outlaw was such a great connoisseur and 
lover of horses. 

Scotty's queer, perverse sense of humour grew 
with the years and he became very fond of 
plying pranks on people out of sheer devilry. 

Sometimes these hoaxes would take the fonu of 
stealing their property, even ^^en he had no 
intention of keeping it. For a vivid eye-witness 
account of one of these hoaxes I am indebted to 
my very oldest living contact with the outlaw, 
ninety-five-yeai'-old Mr George Brooke of 
Piketberg in the Cape. 

In spite of his venerable age, Mr Brooke's 
memory h still excellent and he was easily able 
to recall the following scene, which took place 
well over seventy yeai's ago: 



"At the time I was living at Kelderfontein in 
the Boshof district," he to!d me. ''O^e day I was 
driving a cart, drawn by four mules and laden 
with butter, eggs, vegetables and other garden 
produce for the Kimberley market, when I 
passed an ox-wagon outspaniied by the side of 
the road. There was an old man sitting next to it, 
and he had his horse tethered to the back of the 
wagon. 

'1 stopped and asked him why he did not 
release the animal and allow it to graze. He 
looked at me and then said, 'I'd like to do so, but 
I'm afraid Scotty Smith'll steal it.' 

"I left him, and on my return trip I met the 

same old man neai' the little wayside hotel at 
Frankfurt, this time, however, without the horse. 
I enquired where it was and he said that it had 
been stolen and he was sure the culprit was 
Scotty Smith, It then tiaiispired that he had 
camped out the previous night on a ridge 
overlooking the hotel. Before going to sleep he 
had made sure that his horse was securely 
fastened, and he had also taken the precaution of 



loading his gun and putting it down next to him. 
But when he awoke the following morning the 
animal was gone. 

''While we were talking about this another 
man arrived on the scene. He was mounted and 
was leading the missing horse on a halter. He 
handed it over to its rightful owiier and then 
remarked, I'm Scotty Smith. Don't you run me 
down again. I only took your horse to teach you 
a lesson. IVe never yet robbed a poor man.' 

"Instead of being pleased, as I had expected, 
the old m an was very angry. 

"*If I'd seen you last night,' he muttered, Td 

have shot you. * 

"*Oh,' the stranger chuckled, 'I was well 
aware of that, so I took care to unload your gun 
first before removing your horse.' And with that 
he turned and left us." 

The following anecdote shows Scotty again in 
a much less favourable light and illustrates the 
fact that he could be quite unscrupulous and 
vindictive ^len it suited his book. 



He was once annoyed because two Griquas 
from whom he had purloined a horse actually 
had the audacity to attempt to recover it. They 
were in a small cait drawn by two oxen, and 
were searching for him in the desert ^len he 
came across them. They failed to recognise him 
and so he told them that he was also looking for 
Scotty, because the latter had stolen some of his 
cattle. 

After some discussion they decided to 
combine their efforts to recover their propeity. 
To seal tlie bargain and to drink success to their 
venture, the newcomer produced a bottle of 
brandy. The Griquas could uot resist this and 
Scotty sooit had them dead dnuik. Then, to add 
insult to iujmy^ he cut out the seat of their 
breeches and, making off with their cart and 
oxen, leA them lying in a stupor on the veld 

On another occasion Scott>' found himself in 
the small Transvaal town of Wolmaransstad. 
There he saw a pair of pure "^ite cart-horses 
fastened to a rail outside the Government ofHces. 
The sight of these magnificent animals was too 



much for him. He immediately felt that he must 

acquire them at all costs. He went into the 
building and asked the cleiic, who was sitting 
there, to wdiom they belonged. 

"They're the landdrost's," was the reply. 

Just then that official came in. Scotty 
introduced himself, giving a false name, and then 
adding: 

"That's a wonderful pair of horses you have 

outside." 

"Yes," the landdrost proudly agreed. "I don't 
think there's a finer pair in the whole of the 
Transvaal." 

"Do you want to sell them? You see," Scotty 
glibly lied, "I'm buying horses for De Beers. I'll 
give you good money for them. Just state your 

price." 

The official shook his head emphatically. 
"They're not for sale. Look, man," he boasted, 
"!'!! tell you something. I wouldn't sell them for 
all your marvellous diamonds in Kimberley." 



"Oh, well," Scotty sighed, "I know "^^en Vm 
beaten. But I don't blame you for not wanting to 
part with them." He said good-bye and was on 
the point of leaving ^^iien the landdrost stopped 
him. 

'Tf you're buying horses," he remarked, 'Td 
like to give you a friendly warning. I Iieai' that 
scoundrel Scotty Smith's in the neighbourhood, 
and he's also acquiring horses. Only unlike you 
and other honest buyers he doesn't pay for the 
animals he collects," and he roared with laughter 
at his own joke. 

"Thanks for the tip," Scotty replied, with a 
perfectly straight face. "I'll be on my guard. But 
what about you^ I understand this Scotty Smith's 
got a fine eye for a good beast. Pm sure if he sees 
these animals of yours he won't rest until he's got 
them for himself, so you'd better be careful, too." 

"What, that rogue! "the man scoffed. "I'm too 
smart for him. I tell you he hasn't a hope. Every 
night I lock them up myself and I fasten my 
watchdog to a stake next to the stable doors. That 



dog would tear a lion to pieces if he put his nose 
there after dark." 

"Saints alive!" Scotty exclaimed in an 
admiring tone of voice. "T see you're really a 
smart man. It would indeed be a foolish man 
^^o attempted to steal your horses." 

The landdrost leant forward. "And ^^al's 

more," he said in a confidential w^hisper, "I'm a 
light sleeper. The slightest sound wakes me and I 
keep my loaded gun next to my bed. If I hear 
anything fiiimy going on in the night someone's 
going to get a charge of buckshot in his backside 
and he won't like that." 

All this extravagant bragging, of course, 
instead of putting Scotty off, only made him the 
more detennined to outwit the self-confident 
official. He realised, however, that tiie operation 
needed caieful planning. After, taking farewell 
of the landdrost his first step was to fmd out 
wdiere his house was. Then he strolled casually 
past it. taking in tlie position of the stable and the 
stake to which the dog was tied. The hound was 



indeed a fierce, powerful- looking brute, but 
Scotty had already worked out his own plan to 
overcome this obstacle. 

His next stop was at the local bvitcher's sliop, 
where he bought a pound of steak. After this he 
returned to the hoteL That night, \^en dinner 
was over, he letiied to hi^' room. Owing to his 
veterinary training, Scotty was often called in by 
fanners to attend to their sick animals, and so he 
always kept a well-stocked medicine chest, 
containing drngs and poisons, at his house. 
When he was on one of his trips he made it a 
practice to take some of his more useful drugs 
with him. He now selected one of the most 
potent of these and caiefiilly doctored the meat 
with it. Then he lay down on his bed and waited 
for the time to pass. 

Shortly after midnight, when the little town 
was wrapped in slumber, Scotty got up and, 
taking the piece of steak in his hand, left the 
hotel and made his w^ towards the landdrost's 
house. When he got near it he ^proached with 
the greatest circumspection, making sure that he 



remained down wind from the dog, so that it 
would not get his scent. Moving as silently as a 
ghost, he reached the fence surrounding the yard 
and threw the lump of meat into the air so that it 
would land next to the ferocious dog. But he 
miscalculated slightly and it hit the animal on the 
back. 

The faithful hound had evidently been fast 
asleep. It let out a startled yelp, gave a couple of 
fe'hoft, fierce growls and then settled down to 
chewing and swallowing the steak. 

Standing silently in the dark shadows Scotty 
expected at any moment to hear awindow being 
pushed up and to see the vigilant landdrost 
appeal' on the scene with his shotgun. But 
nothing happened, so evidently the latter was not 
quite as light a sleeper as he tried to make out. 
Scotty was taking no chances, however, and he 
made no move until nearly an hour had passed. 
Then he slipped round to the front gate and crept 
noiselessly along the side of the house to the 
yard. 



His stratagem had worked He was able to 

^proacli the stable doors witboiit the clog 
making the slightest attempt to attack him. In 
fact the animal was lying on its side, dead to the 
world and breathing stertorously through its 
nose. With a piece of wire Scotty expertly picked 
the stable Lock, opened the back gate and led the 
horses out. By the time the landdrost woke the 
next morning and found that his steeds had 
disappeared, the outlaw was aheady miles away 
on the road back to Kimberley. 

There was a queer streak of puckish humour 
in Scotty vidiich sometimes led him to perfonn 

the most foolish pranks of bravado, as witness 
this anecdote, related to me by Mr G. Bergh. 

One day Scotty and Mr Bergh's father, Oloff, 
were sitting in the bai' of the Vryburg Hotel 
M^ien they overheard a young farmer telling his 
friendj^ that he had obtained a very good price for 
his cattle at the local stock sales th^ morning. At 
the same time he rather ostentatiously produced 
two bags of money and banged them down on 
the bar counter. 



One of his friends jokingly remarked, "You'd 

better be careful. Scotty Smith might heai' about 
this and then you'll be soiiy you didn't keep 
quiet." 

"Ag," the young blood boasted. 'If he 
interferes with me Til shoot him dead with this 
gun," and he lightly touched his hip pocket. 

Oloff smiled at his companion, wlio.^e back 
was to the men, but Scotty never said a word, or 
gave the slightest indication that he was listening 
to v^at was being said. After a ^^ile the farmer 

and his friends left the room and, mounting their 
horses, took their several ways home. Then 
Scotty got to his feet and leaning on the counter 

said to the baiman. " Bradford, I want you to do 
iiie a favour. Lend me one of those leather pipe 
cases hanging on the wall behind you." 

These cases looked very much like revolver 
holsters, and Oloff Bergh wondered ^A^iat his 

friend was up to, but the latter did not enlighten 
him at the time. Putting the case in his pocket he 
went to the stables, saddled his horse and rode 



ofT in the direction v\4iich the young fanner had 
taken. It was a clear moonlight night and Scotty 
had no difTicuity in catching up with his quarry, 
^^o was by this time alone. Drawing level he 
pulled out the pipe case and, pointing it at the 
man's heait, ordered him to stand and deliver. 
His terrified victim received such a fright that he 
immediately handed over his money and his 
revolver without offering the slightest resistance. 

Scotty then turned his horse round aiid rode 
back to Viyburg. Going into the hotel he 
contemptuously threw the bags of money and the 
revolver on to the counter and said to the 
barman, "Look, Bradford, you know to \^om 
these belong. If that young whippersn^per 
comes back to claim them^ return them to him 
with my compliments." 

In due course a:&ightened man did return and 

gave the baimaii a graphic account of how he 
had been waylaid and robbed. Bradford let him 
finish his story and then handed him his 
property. "Let this be a lesson to you, young 



man," he said sternly," to keep your mouth shut 
^^en you^e in strange company." 

Chapter Seven 

Prahks and Escapades 

As the years passed, Scotty's consistent 
vendetta against the forces of law Euid order 
seems to have become an obsession with him. 
He took an especially perverse delight in making 
fools of Government officials ^^enever the 
opportunity arose. Once, for example, he 
h^pened to be paying a visit to Lindley in the 
Free State. Hie local Imiddrost possessed a very 
fine Cape cait and a pair of outstanding horses. 
Immediately Scotty's eye fell on them he decided 
to play a trick on the owner and give him a 
fiight. That night he ^propriated the outfit and 
drove to the next village. 

The followmg morning, when the loss was 
discovered, there was much wailing and 
gnashing of teeth in the Landdrost's home. But 
his grief was shortlived. Suddenly, in the midst 
of his distress, the missing cart and horses drove 



up to his front door and the Hottentot driver 

handed him a note fi om Scotty, thanking him for 
his kindness in "lending" him the turn-out and 
assuring him that he had taken good care of the 
horses. 

Another prank, v^ich Scotty was fond of 

playiug on officialdom, wa,s' his impersonation of 
a veldcomet, a sheriff, or some other law- 
enforcement officer. Perh^s the most dehghtful 
of these hoaxes concerns a certain Ti^svaal 
civil servant who was on his way to take up his 
new ^pointment as Landdrost of Ventersdoip. 
This man was spending a night at a small 
wayside inn when Scotty arrived on the scene. 
They strnck up an acquaintanceship and the 
outlaw soon discovered that the new landdiost 
was quite unknown in the Ventersdoip district. 
Tlie temptation to take his place was too great to 
resist. That night after dinner they adjourned to 
the bar and began drinking. But of course, in an 
unequal contest of this kind the official did not 
have a chance against the experienced Scotty. 
The latter was just beginning to warm up when 



his companion coll^sed. Very solicitously he 
put him to bed and gently relieved him of his 
keys and official documents. In order to forestall 
any immediate pursuit he went to the stables, set 
&ee all the horses, and then mounting his own 
steed, rode hard for Ventersdorp. 

He reached the town about nine o'clock in the 
morning and made straight for the Government 
offices A^ere he had no difficulty in passing 
himself off as tlie new landdrost. He audited the 
hooks in a businesslike manner, pocketed what 
little money there was in the cash box, and then 
made a formal inspection of the jail. To his 
delight he discovered in one of the cells a fellow 
thief, who was being held in connection with a 
rather shady horse transaction. Scotty calmly set 
him free and together they rode safely away long 
before the real landdrost appeared on the scene. 

During my researches into Scotty Smith's 
history I have found plenty of evidence to 
support the thesis that he only victimised certain 
people and thai he never took advantage of his 



:&iends or of anyone whom he had promised not 
to molest. 

There was one rather humorous exception to 
tins immunity of Scottj'^s friends from his 
depredations. At one time he was farming at 
Rietpan on the Modder River on a property 
which he had hired from a local faimer, Hendrik 
Ritchie. When any horses vanished irom his 
stables Mr Ritchie, knowing his tenant's 
reputation only too well, did not trouble to look 
for them. All he did was to send a note to Scotty 
informing him that half a dozen of his animals 
had disi^jp eared. On the following morning 
^^en he awoke he would invai'iably fmd the 
missing steeds grazing peacefully in front of his 
homestead. This went on for a long time, until 
the joke palled on Scotty and he stopped 
"borrowing" his landlord's horses. 

Mr F.L. St Leger, a member of the well- 
known Cape Town family, recalled in an 
interview in the Cape Times some years ago that 
he had known Scotty well, and so when he was 
living in the Vryberg district his stock was 



always spared. He gives an amusing account of 

how he and some of his friends were out riding 
one day when they passed a party of men on 
hor^ebadc. These people stopped to warn them 
that Scotty was in the neighbourhood and they 
must exercise extreme vigilance if they did not 
want to lose their horses. Mr St Leger did not 
worry; however, as he knew that he was quite 
safe. His confidence was justified because, 
although he and his companions were not 
interfered with, he found on his return that the 
other party had lost all its horses. 

This reminiscence of Mr St Leger's evoked a 
similar story from a correspondent, who 
described his own personal meeting with the 
outlaw. The coirespondent had set out from 
Kimberley and was on his way to Mafeking at 
the time when Scotty Smith was at the height of 
his career, and as he proceeded on his journey he 
became increasingly concerned about the safety 
of his horses. During the trip he met a stranger 
and ill the course of conversation mentioned his 
anxiety. Politely the latter assured him that he 



had nothing to fear from Scotty as that busy man 

had a far bigger affaii' on haiid. A little later he 
learnt to his astonishment that the polite stranger 
had been Scotty Smith himself. 

In August, 1886^ the discoveiy of gold on the 
site of the present town of Ottoshoop near the 
Mahnani River in the Zeenist district spai'ked off 
yet another South-African gold rush. The boom 
only lasted about a year, but in the beginning the 
finds were reported to be fabulously rich and 
they attracted miners from all parts of South- 
Africa. 

Among those who went there to seek their 
fortunes were Scotty Smith and his old friend, 
George Beet. Mr Beet and Scotty had known one 
another since the eaily Stellalaud-Goshen days, 
and their trails kept crossing. But although 
Scotty had a great respect and liking for his 
friend, and never let him down, the latter does 
not tqjpear to have quite trusted the outlaw, and 
never got over his feeling of uneasiness vdien he 
was in his company. 



In justice to Mr Beet, however, it should be 

recorded that many other men had the same 
reaction to Scott^^'s presence. Oom Frikkie 
Bouwer, for example, was one of these. But as 
we shall see, he certainly had more justification 

than most people for exhibiting signs of 

neivousness when he was w^ith him. 

On his way to Mahnani, George Beet arrived 
at Piet Marais' fann and decided to do some 
prospecting there, so he put up at the house of 
Daantje Gnmdligh, who was Mr Marais' 
manager. Now Piet Marais was a noted horse 
breeder and he had recently imported a 
magnificent English stallion at great cost to add 
to his stud. He very kindly lent this fme animal 
to his visitor, who wished to call at a 
neighbouring homestead. 

Beet had gone about half-way on hi£ journey 
and was riding along a narrow path when he saw 
Scotty and his gang approaching from the 
opposite direction. He was very conscious of the 
mount he was riding and it was with a sinking 



heart that he realised it was too late to avoid a 
meeting. 

When they got within hailing distance, Scotty 
recognised him and sang out, "Hello, Mr Beet, is 
that you?" 

"Yes," Beet replied, haidly able to conceal his 
anxiety. And then his wor^t fears seemed to be 
coufuTued. Scottj' gave the stallion a keen, 
penetrative glance, and an involuntary look of 
admiration spread over his face. 

'TTiat's a fine horse you're riding, Mr Beet. 
To whom does it belong?" 

"It's Piet MaraisV Beet rejoined rather 

sharply. ''Now. Scotty, dont you go casting 

envious eyes on it." 

"It^s quite all right," Scotty laughed. '1 
wouldn't touch anytliing belonging to old Piet." 

Mr Beet had another reason for feeling 
nervous. Round his waist he was wearing a 

money belt with one hundred sovereigns in it, 
and so he was keen to get away irom Scotty as 



soon as possible. But the latter was feeling like 
company, and announced that he was going to 
accompany him. When they reached their 
destination they were cordially welcomed by the 
farmer Beet was visiting and had breakfast 
toeether. Tlien Scotty left, much to his friend's 
relief, although he really knew that the outlaw 
was a man of his word and that he was quite safe 
&om his depredations. 

On a subsequent occasion, about four years 
later. Scottj' again gave George Beet a fright. 
Beet was prospecting for gold in the Langeberg 
range, and was following up a gold-bearing reef 
of banket, which was sup ei'fici ally similai^ to the 
Witwatersrand fonnation and looked very 
promising. He had wandered away from the rest 
of his party and was so absorbed in what he was 
doing that he received quite a shock when a 
thickset man dressed in rough corduroys rode up 
and told him that Scotty was close at hand, 
helping a suiveyor, and would like to have a 
friendly chat with him. 



Now by a strange coincidence Beet again had 
about a bundled pounds in cash on him. As he 
thought of this all his old distrust of the outlaw 
arose and he decided to avoid meeting him if 
possible. Making the excuse that he was feeling 
unwell he sent a mesi^age to Scotty regretting 
that he would not be able to come. He then 
hurried back to rejoin the rest of his party and 
left the neighbourhood as quickly as possible. 
When recording thi&" incident later, Beet did have 
the grace to admit that he was probably 
misjudging Scotty and that the latter would never 
have stolen anything of his. 

This lack of confidence in Scotty, of which he 
was never quite able to divest himself, is all the 
more difficult to understand because Beet 
himself collected a number of interesting stories 
about Scotty, which are all to the latter's credit. 
He recounts, for example, how a man once rode 
up to Mr Rademan's farm at Kafiersdam and, 
introducing himself as ''Mr Olivier," asked for 
accommodation for the night. Rademan imme- 
diately recognised him as Scotty Smith whom he 



had met before. But although he had a horse of 
wdiich he was very proud he gave not the 
slightest sign that he knew who the man was, and 
readily agreed to his request for permission to 
spend the night there. 

When it was time to retire, Rademan showed 

his guest to his room and then remaiked, 
"There's just one thing, Mr Olivier. I want you to 
do me a favour. Spare that stallion of mine that's 
in the stable." 

Scotty was quite upset \\dien he realised that 
he had been recognised. 

"So you still remember me, Mr Rademan, do 

you?" 

'T do. You can take any of the other horses 
you like but not the stallion." 

"All right," Scotty promised. "I won't touch 
anything of yours. 

In spite of this comforting assurance, 

Rademan had an uneasy night and was up at 
three o'clock the next morning. He went to wake 



Scotty Rnd his fears were not allf^ed when he 
found that he had ah eady left. With aii aiixiou^^ 
heart he hurried down to the stables. But he need 
not have worried. Hie stallion was there and also 
all his other horses. 

Another visitor ^^o had spent the night at the 

fanii was not, however, so fortunate. His two 
horses were gone. And shortly aflerwards quite a 
few farmers in the district had cause to complain 
that so many of their animals had mysteriously 
vanished. 

Once, many years afterwards, when George 
Beet was being driven in a cart by one of 
Taungs' oldest residents, the driver told him a 
number of stories about the famous outlaw. He 
infonned his passenger that he and Scotty were 
on very good tenns. One day he received a 
message &om the outlaw that he was planning an 
extensive raid on the horses in the district. But he 
was assured that if those belonging to himself 
and to certain of his friends were specially 
stabled they would be spared. Hie driver passed 
the word on to the men concerned and although 



the raid duly took place and many farmers 
suffered heavy losses, their animals were not 
molested. 

Mr Beet also gives an amusing account of 
how teirified people were of Scotty Smith and 
his reputation. Beet had a brother named Arthur, 
who owned a lai'ge store at Taungs in the middle 
'eighties of last century. One day Arthur Beet 
was returning home along the main road from 
Kuruman when he met a rider, who asked him 
\\diere he was going. As soon as the stranger 
found out that he was on his way to Taungs he 
said that he would like to accompany him. 
Arthur agreed and \^ile they were riding 
together his companion enquired ^^ether he 
knew Scotty Smith. 

''No/' was the blunt reply, "and ^^at's more, I 
dont want to know the scoundrel." 

Nothing more was said on this subject and 
vAiGii they arrived at Taungs they went over to 
Loo Abrams' store. As they ^proached it Loo 
sang out, "Hello, Scotty." 



Arthur received such a fiight that he 

immediately left. Stumbling into his own shop, 
which was crowded at the time, all he could 
manage to gasp out was, "What's. . . ^^at's 
yours?" 

Tills caused great merriment in the town and 

Aitluii' Beet took a long time to live it dowu. For 
some years he could not put in an appearance 
anywhere without being greeted with the 
embarrassing query, "What's ... ^^at's yours?" 

Such fear did the name of Scotty Smith 

inspire in those days in any traveller w!io was 
riding a decent horse that his fnst question on 
stopping at an hotel was ^^ether the bandit was 
in the neighbourhood. And the more feai^;:l a 
man was of meeting Scotty the more chance he 
apparently had of actually coming into personal 
contact with the outlaw. 

Tlie striking fact that, once Scotty had tasted 
another man's bread, he never abused his 
hospitality is well illustrated by the well-known 
stoiy of his encounter with the famous Matabele 



Hiompson. At the time Mr Tliompson was living 
on his farm, Comforth Hill, on the Harts River. 

One afternoon in 1882 his wife, vAio had been 
out for a ride on the veld, was returning home. 
While she was crossing a donga her horse 
suddenly shied At the same moment a tall, 
handsome man emerged from a chimp of reeds. 
She glanced at him and was immediately 
impressed by his polite bearing and gentlemanly 
^pearance. 

As she passed him she nodded and he gave 

her a low. couitly bow. When her husband 
returned home she told him of the incident. 
Darkness fell and shortly afterwards a servant 
brought a message to say that a stianger had 
arrived and was asking for lodgings for the night. 
Without going out, Mr Thompson gave 
instructions that he was to be given a bed and 
should be well looked after. Scotty was shown to 
one of the outside rooms and was served with a 
good dinner. 



At dawn, Matabele Thompson heard a light 

ti^ on his bedroom window, and then a cultured 
voice ^^diispered, "Good-bye, Mr Thompson. 
Thank you very much for your hospitality:" 

Shortiy aftenvai'ds, as ihe sun was rising, an 
agitated servant arrived with the calamitous news 
that all Mr Thompson's horses had been stolen. 
A huiried search was organised but was 
completely unsuccessful. About two hours later, 
however, the whole troop of forty horses arrived 
back at the homestead in charge of a man, who 
had a note for the owner. It was from Scotty 
Smith and explained that the animals had been 
taken in error with some other stock ^lich his 
men were rounding up. 

"You treated me very well/' the note 
concluded^ "ond as your guest I ate your salt. I 
therefore had no intention of robbing you. It was 
an impardonable mistake on the part of my 
servants." 

These are ideal sentiments, and Scotty was 
undoubtedly genuine when he expressed them. 



But he was an unpredictable man, with the most 
unorthodox ideas of what was right and what 
was wrong, and ^parently for him the converse 
did not hold Thus, v^ile he would not deign to 
rob his host, he had no scruples about preying on 
his guests. At any rate this was the unfortimate 
experience which Oom Frikkie Bouwer suffered 
at his hands. 

"Once," he recalled, "I was travelling in the 
desert with a Scotch cait and six oxen. I was near 
Lieutenant's Pan aiid so I decided to stop there. 
Scotty appeared to be genuinely pleased to see 
me and, as it was towards sunset, he invited me 
to spend the night with him. I gladly accepted 
and was most hospitably entertained. The nest 
morning, however, when I wanted to continue 
my journey, I found that my oxen had 
dis^p eared. 

"I spent practically the wliole day looking for 
them, and Scotty was most energetic, pretending 
to help me. At last he said that it was hopeless 
and we might as well give up the search: 



"Til tell you vrfiat/ he remarked, TU give you 
four of my own beasts.' 

"Altlioiigh I had my doubts about wh^ had 
happened to my annuals, I had to be content with 
this, and so I lost no time in leaving. It was only 
aflerwRrds that I discovered that my suspicions 
were tnie aiid that Scotty had stolen my oxen and 
hidden tlieni in a safe place until I had gone." 

Mr Bouwer seems to have been particularly 
unlucky in his encounters with the outlaw. "On 
another occasion," he told me, "I was riding in 

the vicinity of the desert police station at 
Rietfontein when I met Scotty. At the time I was 
mounted on a very fine roan, and I could see 
from the look on his face that he was badly 
smitten. In fact he coveted my horse so much 
that he pestered the life out of me to let him have 
it. Eventually he offered me £50 for it. But I 
refused as I had no intention of selling my horse. 
At last, when he realised that it was hopeless, he 
desisted and rode off. 



"After my previous experience with him, I 
was deteiTuined not to be caught again. I 
deliberately rode to the police post and asked for 
accommodation for the night. I thought that by 
taking this precaution my roan would be quite 
safe. I might just as well have sa\'ed myself the 
trouble. The next morning the horse was gone, 
and in its place Scotty had lefl £50 in notes." 

Even after this long interval of time, Oom 
Frikkie smiled mefully, "I wasn't a bit pleased," 
he concluded sadly. "It was really a magnificent 
animal, and I wouldVe given anything to get it 
back again." 

In those d^s Kimberley was a great centre 
for race meetings and Mr C. Woods, a prominent 
local trainer, was once taking a string of horses 
down to an important meeting in the town. 
Suddenly a band of anned horsemen rode out 
and surrounded him. Tliey held him up at pistol 
point and their leader demanded that he should 
hand over his horses. Instead of being frightened 
Mr Woods was indignant. Realising that this was 



almost certain to be Scotty Smith's gang, he 
shouted out: 

''You caii't possibly do this. The owner of 
these auimals is Mr — , and he is well known to 
Scotty." 

The reaction was immediate. "Put away your 
guns," the highwayman ordered his men. 

"I'm terribly sorry," he ^ologised to Mr 

Woods. "It's a mistake. I'd no idea these horses 
belonged to Mr—" To show there was no ill- 
feeling he produced a bottle of whisky and they 
drank one another's health before going their 
separate w^s. 

This is a good example of how Scotty played 
the game with his friends. There is no doubt, too, 
that he was a sportsman and if beaten in fair fight 
was large-hearted enough to forgive his oppo- 
nent and not bear aiiy malice towards him. We 
have in fact evidence of how on more than one 
occasion, Miien he received the worst of an 
encounter, he displayed this magnanimous spirit. 
In his old age he was fond of relating how in his 



unregeneratc days he once caught a tartar and got 
more than he bargained for. 

Scotty had spies and infomiants, who kept 
him supplied with new^s of what was happening 
in various paits of the country. One day he 
received intelligence that a prominent Free State 
faimer had been paid a veiy good price for his 
wool clip. He had been into the town to collect 
his money and was on his way home ^^en 
Scotty suddenly speared in front of him with a 
loaded pistol in his hand and demanded his 
money. 

The Boer was caiiying this in a bag attached 
to his saddle. He immediately handed it over 
with the remark, "My life's worth more to me 
than any money. But you know, Scotty," he 
added,'' IVe always heard that you were a sport. I 
dont think it's plying the game to take my 
money in this way. You are aimed and I'm not. 
Why not put the bag and the pistol down and 
let's fight if out with our fists to see wdio's the 
better man? I'll wager my cash against your 
pistol that Tm that man." 



It was impossible for Scotty to resist such a 
challenge. And in any case he had mimediately 
sized up his opponent, who was a small man, and 
^^om he judged to be at least a couple of stone 
lighter than himself So he jumped ofThis horse, 
carefiilly placed his pistol on top of the bag of 
money, and squared up to his adversaiy. He 
thought it would be a walkover, but he quickly 
learnt his mistake. The Boer must have been a 
potential champion. He proceeded to give the 
outlaw a sound thrasliing. When it was over he 
calmly rode off with the money and the gun. 

A few weeks later Scotty again got the tip that 
some fanners, who had obtained very good 
prices for their wool, were returning that evening 
to their farms. Once more he lay in ambush, 
determined to make up for his previous fiasco. 
At last he saw a couple of men approaching. He 
was on the point of rushing out and stopping 
them ^^en to his surprise he recognised that one 
of them was the man who had recently given him 
a good hiding. It is certain that not many men in 
his position would have sacrificed this 



opportunity for revenge. There was nothing 
petty, however, about Scotty and it says much 
for his magnanimity that he immediately 
changed his mind and allowed his victor to 
return safely home. Nor did the latter ever 
discover how cloi^e he had come to being robbed 
for the second time. 

According to one writer, Scotty once had the 
tables turned on him A^en he himself was 
waylaid and robbed by a paity of gentlemen of 
the road, who had somehow discovered that he 
was carrying a laige sum of gold on him. As 
usual, however, he had the last laugh. One 
evening towai'ds dusk he was riding alone across 
the veld at dusk in the Southern Transvaal when 
a number of men suddenly sunounded him and 
held him up at pistol point. 

"Your money or your life!" their leader 

shotted. Without the slightest hesitation Scotty 
replied, "Take my money," and handed over the 
two heavy bags fastened to his saddle. TTie 
robbers rode off and it wa&" only when they 
examined their booty that they found how they 



had been tricked. Before setting out Scotty had 

secreted the gold coins on his person and had 
filled the bags with pennies. 

Major Jesser Coope, who aftei'wai'ds became 
a well-known citizen of Southern Rhodesia, also 
had an encounter about this time with the famous 
freebootei'. which redounds much to the latter^s 
credit. It was the year 1890, and Jesser Coope, 
dicn a young subaltern in the British South- 
African Police, was in charge of a number of 
remounts which had been purchased in the 
Vryburg district. It was his custom to have the 
horses counted each morning before leaving the 
place wiiere they had stayed for the night. At the 
veiy first camp after leaving Viybiirg he found 
that two of the mounts were missing. 

Now Jesser Coope had had a tremendous 
battle rounding up his tough, hard-drinking men 
and getting them out of the Vryburg canteens on 
the previous day. He had no illusions about what 
would h^pen if they were sent out to search for 
the missing steeds. They would make a bee-line 



back to the town, and he would have all his 
trouble over again. 

He therefore gave strict instructions that they 
were to remain in the camp. Tlien with an old 
hand, who knew a good deal about the art of 
tracking, he followed the trail of the missing 
animals until he came to a cait outspaniied not 
very far from Vryburg. A tall man with a beard 
came out to see ^^at he wanted. The old hand 
immediately v^ispered to his officer, 'That's 
Scotty Smith. He's sure to have pinched the 
horses." 

But when Jesser Coope taxed Scotty with the 
theft he blandly denied that he knew anything 
about it. Jesser Coope, however, refused to 
believe this and after a while Scotty admitted 
that he had taken the horses. Then with an 
impudent grin on his face he offered to fight the 
officer for them. 

Now Jesser Coope was an old English public 
school boy, and like so many of his kind he had 
shown more prowesses on the sports field and in 



the gymnasium than in the classroom. He was a 
first-clas^s^ boxer, so he mimediately accepted the 
challenge. But Scotty was only testing him out, 
or perh^s his unfortunate encounter with the 
young farmer was still &esh in his memory and 
had made him more cautious than he would 
otherwise have been. At any rate he roared with 
laughter, and treated the ^^ole matter as ajokc. 

"All right, you win," he cried. "You can have 
your horses back." 

They shook hands on it and Scotty sent his 

man to fetch the missing animals. Then he rode 
back with the officer to his camp and they made 
a night of it. 

And here is the story of another encounter, 
^^ich Scotty had with the B.S.A.P. One day a 
young officer of that famous corps airivecf in 
Mafeking. He was in chaige of a hundred 
remounts, \^ich he and two troopers were taking 
back to the force. Hiey attended to the horses 
and then picketed them in a large open space in 
the middle of the town, after which, hot, dusty 



and exhausted, they retired to the hotel for the 
night. 

Before dawn the officer awoke with an 
uneasy feeling. Suddenly realising that he had 
not taken the elementary precaution of 
^pointing a night guard over the horses he 
huiried out to see whether they were all right. 
And then he stopped dead. There was not a 
single horse in sight. With growing panic he 
hastily summoned his men. For three days they 
searched frantically but without success for the 
missing steeds. The horses ^peaied to have 
vanished into thin air. There was one clue, 
however, to their fate. At widely scattered points 
on the veld tlie troopers picked up a few halter 
ropes, halters and picket pegs, which seemed to 
indicate that something must have stampeded the 
animals. 

At last, in a state of profound dejection, and 
with visions of being court maitialled and 
cashiered floating before his eyes, the young 
officer decided to consult the barman about the 
possibility of obtaining a number of Barolong 



tribesmen to help him in his search. The bannan, 
however, was not very encouraging. He had a 
pretty shrewd idea who the culprit was, and so he 
suggested that the best thing the subaltern could 
do would be to reconcile himself to his loss. 

At this stage a tall, silent man, v^o had been 
standing on one side listening to the conver- 
sation, suddenly intervened. Impressed by the 
young officer's obvious distress, he walked up to 
him and in a fiiendly manner asked, " What year 
were you at Sandhurst?" 

Taken aback by this unexpected question, the 
youngster told him, and then poured out his 
troubles into the stranger's sympathetic ear. Tlie 
latter listened in silence until he had fmished and 
then patted him on the shoulder. 

"Don't worry, my boy," he remarked kindly, 
"I know this part of the country extremely well 
and 111 see v^at I can do for you. Send your men 
off to have a good rest," Then droppmg his voice 
he added in a much sharper tone. "Now pull 
yourself together, young man, and don't give 



way like this. Just imagine "^^at impression yoiu* 

present state would have on youi' colonel, were 
he to get wind of it. It's fortunate for you that I'm 
not your adjutant! " 

The officer retired in a very crestfallen mood. 
But at dawn the next morning he was awakened 
by the unexpected sound of tlie neighing and 
Miiinnying of a large number of horses. Hardly 
able to believe his ears, he jumped out of bed 
and rushed in the direction of the noise. An 
amazing sight met his eyes. About a hundred 
horses were standing tethered to the picket posts. 

When he had recovered :h'om his fu^st shock 
the subaltern counted them and found that not a 
mount was missing. He also noticed that, 
although most of their halters bore the B.S.A.P. 
stamp, in some cases improvised ropes andriems 
had been used. It was only later that he realised 
that the animals could not possibly have 
stampeded, because they bore none of the cuts 
and abrasions ^rich they would undoubtedly 
have done had they been frightened into 
breaking loose. 



At tlie moment, however, his only desire was 
to find the man who had peifonned this miiitcle 
and had restored his self-respect. But the mild- 
mannered, soft-spoken stranger was noi^ere to 
be found. All enquiries were met with a blank 
wall of reserve. For some reason no one seemed 
willing to acknowledge that they knew anything 
about the man. Tlie barman would s^, for 
example, " Oh 'im. ^ comes 'ere now and then. 
Don't know 'is »ame, but a bloke 'ere once called 
'im 'Scotty.' Best leave 'im, son, to 'is own 
secrets. It'll pay you better that w^." 

A some^^at diOerent type of escapade, ^lich 

belongs to this period in Scotty's career, took 
place about this time. One afternoon he arrived 
at a farm house in the Free State and was invited 
inside. The farmer and his three grown-up sons 
were at home and while they were having coffee 
in the sitting-room Scotty noticed th^ there were 
a number of silver cups on the mantelshelf over 
the open health. TTie male members of the family 
must have been outstanding maiksmen, because 
all these cups had been awarded for taiget 



shooting, no mean achievement in those days 
^^en every young burgher was an excellent shot. 

Almost inevitably the talk turned to the 
redoubtable Scotty and his amazing exploits. The 
family had of course no idea that they were 
actually entertaining the famous outlaw himself, 
as he had introduced himself to them under a 
false name. 

At last one of the sons asked him whether he 
had ever met Scotty. 

"Yes," he replied. "As a matter of fact, I know 
him quite well, and I think you're taking a 
chance leaving that silver there. (He pointed to 
the trophies on the shelf.) He's such a cunning 
rogue, I wouldn't put it past him to steal those 
cups &om right under your noses." 

The farmer scoffed at this. 'Td like to see how 
he'd manage it," he remaiked. 

"I'm sure, if he wanted to, he'd manage it all 
right," Scotty persisted. 



''But that's impossible," another member of 
the family put in. "There's always one of us 
about." 

"Look," said Scott>% "I'll show you. This is 
what he'd do." He took the cups caiefiilly off the 
shelTand wr^ped them in the table cloth. Then 
picking up the cloth he remaiked, "Now watch 

me carefully." 

With their eyes fixed intently on him, he 
walked slowly towards the door, opened it very 
deliberately, mounted his horse, and put the 
bundle on the saddle in front of them. While the 
family closely observed his every movement 
&om the stoep, Scotty rode slowly round in a 
semi-circle. Suddenly he stopped and turned his 
holme's head as though he were going to retrace 
his steps. 

"That's how I'd do it," he yelled, and before 
anyone understood wdiat he was up to he 
^^eeled round and dashed off. Only then did the 
farmer and his sons realise how they had been 
duped. 



With angry yells they rushed for their own 
horses and set off in pursuit. But Scotty was on 
Lieutenant and he had sufficient start to elude his 
followers. Soon he had thrown them offhis trail, 
and slowing down he considered ^lat he should 
do with the cups. 

He had only taken them as a joke and from 
the start he had no intention of keeping them. In 
his opinion stealing horses and cattle was one 
thing but robbing a fannei' of the treasured 
trophies which his family had won for their 
shooting prowess was quite another matter. 

Finally he made up his mind. At the next 
homestead ^^ich he passed he deposited the 
bundle and asked the farmer's wife to return it to 
its rightful owners as soon as possible. 



Chapter Eight 



ROBIN Hood of the veld 

MANY of Scotty's horse-liAing and cattle- 
raiding exploits provide illustiations of the 
duality of his nature. Some of them depict him 
as a hard, pitiless, avaricious man, who caied 
nothing for the suffering and distress which he 
caused his numerous victims. Others present 
him in a much more favourable light, as a 
modem Robin Hood, v^ose kindness and 
benevolence to the poor, the weak and the 
under-privileged built up a reputation for 
chivalry among the simple fanners, who so 
often had to leave their wives and cattle quite 
unprotected while they rode off on commando 
or other official business. Here, for example, is 
a typical example of his generosity and 
philanthrophy: 

It was a hot summer's d^ in Bloemfontein 
and the town was crowded with people. A big 
cattle case was being heai^d and the landdiost's 
court was packed with fanners from the 



surrounding districts, Scotty, who h£q>pened to 
be in the neighbourhood itt the time, had also 
ridden in and was among the spectators. But he 
was interested not so much in the court 
proceedings as in the information Mdiich he had 
newly acquired, that the landdrost posses&'ed a 
magnificent horse. About four o'clock that after- 
noon wiiile the trial was still dragging on he left 
the couitroom and made his way towards the 
landdrost's house. 

Slipping into the stables he led the horse out 
and, without anyone noticing what he was 
doing, mounted it and rode aw^. Soon 
afteiwaj'ds the weather suddenly changed. Dark 
clouds gathered and before long the rain came 
pelting down. By the time Scotty was five or six 
miles out of town he was soaked, and as the 
stoiiu showed no signs of abating he began to 
look round for somewhere he could shelter for 
the night. 

His luck was in. In the distance a light 

gleamed, and making for it he reached a rather 
drab-looking homestead. He knocked on the 



door. It was opened by a woman vAio seemed to 
be very hesitant about admitting him. 

"Can you put me up for the night?" lie asked. 

"I wonld like to," she replied, "but my 
husband isn't heie. He made me promise not to 
admit any strangers while he was away and now 
I hear Scotty Smith's been seen in the neigh- 
bourhood" 

In course of time the outlaw must have got 
used to this reaction to the mention of his name. 
He had acquired such areputation among people, 
^^o did not know him thai they regarded him as 
some hon ible kind of ogre. Mothei's would even 
discipline their recalcitrant children by threat- 
ening: "If you dont stop being naughty I'll tell 
Scotty Smith to ride away with you on his 
saddle, and then yon'll never see your poor 
Mommy again." That this was ^pai ently quite a 
common practice is corroborated by Mr G. 
Bergh. His mother grew up on the faim 
Witpooit, in the Wohuaiansstad distiict of the 
Free State, and she told him that as a young girl 



she had distinct recollections of Scotty's name 

being used iti this way by exasperated parents in 
order to frighten their peevish offspring. 

On this occasion Scottj' laughed heaitily. 
"YouVe got nothing to be afraid of/' he said. 
"The scoundrel won't dare to show his face ^^ile 
I'm here. As a matter of fact I'm after Scotty 
myself, and the lauddiost's lent me his own horse 
so that I can catch up with him. You must 
recognise it." 

The woman was reassured, as much by 

Scotty's chann of manner as by the fact tliat she 
knew the animal well. "All right," she said. "I'll 
give you a room for the night. Take your horse 
round to the shed w^iile I get the supper." After 
they had fmished eating they sat talking for a 
while and Scotty soon noticed diat his hostess 
was some-^^at sad and distrait. He asked her if 
there was anything worrying her. At first she 
would not s^ a word but eventually the story 
came out. 



"I dont know "^^at's going to happen, " she 
cried. "I told my husband not to do it. but he 
wouldn't hsten to me. He backed a bill for a 
friend for £200 and now the man's cleared out 
and we cant find him." 

"Dont worry" the stranger comforted her, 

"and don't sit up foi me. As soon as the weather 
cleais I'll be off on Scotty's trail." 

He thanked her for her hospitality and she 
retired. Some time afterwards the storm passed 
and Scotty got up. Taking a bundle of notes from 
his pocket he counted out £200. This he put 
under the plate on the t^le together with a note, 
"Best wishes from Scotty Smidi." Tlien he rode 
off into the night. 

Of course the old freebooter did not usually 
have so much money at his disposal nor was he 
always prepared to distribute it on such a 
generous scale. But he hated imposing on people 
and invaiiably paid fr>r any hospitality shown 
him. On one occasion acouple of travellers were 
tiekking by ox-wagon from Kimberley to 



Mafeking. They had spent some nights on the 
veld and it was bitteily cold so they were only 
too glad to accept the hospitality of a farmer who 
invited them to spend the night at his homestead. 
During supper the talk turned to the ever-topical 
subject of Scotty Smith. The travellers immedia- 
tely began to run the notorious horse thief down 
and to condemn his many misdeeds. To their 
amazement the fanner's wife abniptly silenced 
them. "Please don't talk like that." she exclaimed. 
"I won't hear anything bad against him in this 
house." 

The men looked so surprised at this unex- 
pected outburst that she told them the following 
story: 

"One evening my husband ivas away and I 
was rather apprehensive when a stranger rode up 
to the house. He was, however, such a charming 
man that T knew T would be quite safe with him. 
He spent the night here and didn't speak much. 
Tlie next morning, however, I received a shock. 
Afrer thanking me for my hospitality he put a £5 
note on the table and then turning to me said: 



Tm ScDtly Smidi. Tell your husband that in 
future your stock will be quite safe &om that old 
cattle lifter.' 

"That was some years ago," die concluded, 
"and he's certainly kept his promise, so you will 
understand the reason why we refuse to tolerate 
any evil talk about him in our presence." 

In the eaily days, before tlie railway line fiom 
the south had reached the borders of the Orange 
Free State, travellers used to be conveyed by 
stage coach &om the railhead at Colesberg to 
Bloemfontein. One of the stopping places on the 
route was the homestead of Mr I.M van Rooyen, 
a fanner in the Reddersburg district, and I am 
indebted to his son, Mr S.J. van Rooyen of 
Ennelo, for this interesting anecdote about 
Scotty. At his father's place the horses were 
changed for the penultimate st^e of the dash to 
Bloemfontein, about foit^^ miles away. As a 
result Mr Van Rooyen alw^s had to maintain a 
lar^e stable of first-class, well-trained horses. 



On one occasion he was p^ing a visit to his 
father-inlaw. Albeitus Roux. who was fanning in 
the Philippolis district, and he had to leave his 
wife alone on the farm with her small children. 
She was well aware, of course, that the fine 
stables which they kept would be a great 
temptation to horse thieves. Nor were her 
anxieties allayed ^^en she heard that Scotty 
Smith was operating in the aiea, and that even 
the strongest padlocks and the most vigilant 
guai'ds were no protection against his depre- 
dations. 

Just as dusk was setting in one day she heard 

ahorse galloping towards the house. With a sigh 
of relief she thought that it was her husband 
returning eailier than she had expected. When, 
however, the rider dismounted and knocked, she 
realised that it could not be Mr Van Rooyen. She 
opened the door and found a stranger outside. He 
greeted her courteously and, introducing himself 
as a Mr Fincham, asked for shelter for the night. 

She took him to the stable, showed him where 
to feed his horse and then invited him inside. 



After av^ile she confided to him her fears about 

Scotty aiid remaiked that she was paiticiilaily 
nervous because of the team of eight selected 
horses waiting in the stable for the coach from 
Bloemfontein and also because she had a fairly 

lEU'ge sum of money in the house. He listened 
attentively while she told him this and evidently 
fqjpreciated the trust \^ich she reposed in his 
hoIlest>^ Before retiiing he assured her that she 
could sleep peacefully as he would see to it that 
no haiiu came to her possessions while he was 
there. 

The next morning he thanked her for her 

hospitality, expressed the wish that her husband 
would soon retuni safely and then added: "I must 
now continue my jouniey. I'm Scotty Smith." 

Mr David Cowan^ a well-known citizen of 
Victoria West, had a somev^at more unpleasant 
experience at the hands of Scotty, Once, while he 
was on avisit to Beaufort West, a stranger turned 
up at his house and asked to be put up for the 
night. His wife, however, was dubious about 
taking him in for the usual reason. But when she 



confided her fears to the stranger he laughed. 
"You needn't be afraid of Scotty Smith," he said, 
"He's never yet been kiiowii to hann a woman." 

Mrs Cowan was still rather doubtful about 
^^iiat she should do, but eventually she gave him 
an outside room and took him his supper. Hie 

next morning die was up eaily and sent him 
some coffee. The girl brought it back. 

"The Baas's gone," she told her missus. "But I 
found this letter on his bed." 

"Thank you for the room and food," it ran. 
"I'm Sony but IVe had to borrow two of your 
horses. When your husband returns, tell him that 
if he goes to the hotel in Beaufort West in ten 
days' time he'll fmd them there." 

Mr Cowan did this and the horses were 
waiting for him, just as Scotty had promised 

And here is a story of one of his clashes with 
the police. Scotty had been caught horse lifting, 
had been taken to a small Free State town, and 
had been lodged in the jail there. Within a few 
hours, however, he had &eed himself, and having 



stolen a horse had made good his esc^c, A few 
nights later he mrivec! at the home of a poor 
farmer, who hospitably shared his scanty meal 
with him. During the course of the evening the 
man showed him a note i^ich he had received 
from the district police officer, stating that Scotty 
Smith had esc^ed and that a reward of £100 
was being offered for his recapture. 

"I wish I could earn that reward," the farmer 

said sadly. "Things havent gone too well with 
me lately and I could make good use of the 

money." 

Scotty did not say a word in reply, but the 
following morning after breakfast he told his 
host to fetch his gun and accompany him to the 

town. 

"Why should I do that?" asked the surprised 

Boer. 

"Because I'm Scotty Smith," was the answer. 
"You said you wanted the reward for c^turing 
me and you're going to get it." 



The farmer vehemently protested, but as usual 
Scotty had his way. He forced his companion to 
ride into the town with him and to hand him over 
to the sheriff Tlie man was duly paid the £100 
while Scotty was put in a cell. A few hours later 
the farmer rode sadly back to his farm. To his 
amazement, when he reached his homestead the 
first thing he saw was the irrepressible Scotty 
sitting on the &ont stoep waiting for him. 

But it was ^^en it came to be^ending poor, 
lonely widows in distress that Scotty was really 
in his element. And poor^ lonely widows in 
distress seem to have been so plentiful at that 
time in the Orange Free State and the Transvaal 
that aiding and succouring them could quite 
easily have become a full-time job. 

Once, for example, Scotty airived at a farm 
only to fmd thai the owner had died a few days 
before and that the widow was in a state of great 
distress. It appeared that her brother-in-law held 
a large bond on the propeity and that he had 
decided to call it in. He was a hard man and it 



meant nothing to him that she and her children 
would be lefl penniless. 

Scotty did his best to comfoit her. On his 
advice, she pleaded with her brother-in-law to 
postpone the foreclosure for a fortnight. 
Reluctantly he agreed to do this. Scotty then told 
the widow not to wony as he was sure that he 
could raise the necessaiy mouey. 

He leA her and collected some of his gang. 
Then he raided tiie bondholder's farm and stole a 
herd of cattle. Hiese were driven to the Johan- 
nesburg stock market and sold there. A few days 
before the time was up, Scotty diove to the 
widow's house and gave her a bag of money. In 
it was enough to cover the bond. She refused, 
however, to take it. because he would not accept 
areceipt and so she knew he was giving it to her 
as agifl. At last he got tired of arguing. 

"All right," he cried. "I dont want the money. 
I'll just leave it here and you can do ^^at you 
like with it." Then he rode off. 



Another version of this story is that the holder 
of the mortgage was no relation of his helpless 
victim. By a stroke of luck, on the very evening 
before the foreclosure was due, Scotty Smith 
happened to arrive at the fann. With his usual 
tact he had no difficulty in discovering why his 
hostess was so upset. 

"How much is the bond?" he asked. "£400," 
she replied. 

Without the slightest hesitation he dug his 
hand into his pocket, extracted a thick wad of 
notes and carefully counted out the required 

amount. 

"Now," he told her, "when the man comes to- 
morrow to collect his money, pay him in full. 
Whatever you do, however, dont forget to obtain 
a proper receipt." 

At fn st the widow demurred, and would not 

accept the gift. 

"It's quite all right," Scotty assured her, "I 
certainly wont lose on the deal. You can be sure 
of that." 



She did not understand -whst he meant, but 
eventually gave way and agreed to do ^^at he 
said. 

On the following morning when the holder of 
the mortgage airived he founds to his chagrin, 
thai the widow had the cash waiting for him. As 
there was iiothine he could do about it he gave 
her the receipt and rode away. He had not gone 
far when an armed man speared from some 
bushes and, holding him up at pistol point, 
robbed him of the money ^^ich he had just 
received. 

That afternoon Scotty revisited the farm. The 
widow was very gratefiil to him, but ^^en she 
asked him for his address so that die could 
eventually repay him he shook his head. 

"Don't worry," he remained with a grin, "the 
debt's already been settled. You don't owe me a 
penny. Goodbye, I'm Scotty Smidi." 

On still another occasion the scene of Scotty's 
chivaliy and philanthropy was laid in the 
Transvaal. The owner of the farm, a widow in 



poor circumstances, was terrified ^^en a man on 

horseback airived, because she only had a few 
cows left and if they were stolen she would be 
destitute. But she overcame her fears and gave 
him supper and a bed The next morning ^^en 

he left he thanked her for her kindness. For o»ce, 
however, he failed to give her the usual present. 

A few days after her guest's departure the 
woman was amazed to see an African driving 
twelve beautiful heifers into the kraal. When she 
asked him wliat he was doing he gave her a note 
w4iich read: "Although you didn't know that it 
was me you were entertaining the other evening, 
this is a small present in return for your 
hospitality Scotty Smith." 

Finally there is this sticking account of the 
outlaw's benevolence to two distressed women in 
the Vryburg district in the early 'eighties. Not far 
fioiii the town was a faiiii with a dilapidated 
hartebeeshuis on it. Scotty, however, in riding 
past the house noticed a magnificent grey 
stallion grazing neai^ it. Immediately he coveted 
the animal and decided that he would not be 



h^ipy until it was in his possession. He therefore 
rode up to the door aiid knocked. It was opened 
by a pretty young giil, who invited him in to 
have the customaiy cup of coffee and nisks. 

As he went inside, Scotty saw the gill's 
mother lying on a bed in the back room in a state 
of great distiess. His interest was immediately 
aroused and in the course of conversation he 
asked the girl \^^at was wrong. 

"Meneer," she confided to him, "my father 
died recently, and there's a large debt outstand- 
ing to a Vryburg store. If it isn't paid within the 
next few weeks our farm will be sold and we'll 
be homeless and penniless." 

Scotty thereupon drove the mother and 
daughter to town. He went to the bank and drew 
out the required amount. With this in his hand he 
walked into the shop, threw the money on the 
counter and shouted, "There's the sum owed you. 
Give me the receipt^ and if I ever hear of you 
oppressing people like this again I'll come, back 
and put a couple of bullets into you." 



ASier this he escorted the woman and her 
daughter back to the fann. "Yon know, madam," 
he confessed before he lefl, "I really came here 
to steal that grey stallion of yours. But don't 
worry, I'll arrange that nothing h^pens to your 
stock in the future. You see, I'm Scotty Smith." 

There aie many other stories of Scotty's 
sympathy towards and consideration for women, 
all of ^^ich bear the authentic South-African 
Robin Hood stamp - the lonely distressed woman 
on the farm: her reluctant hospitality to the 
stranger because of her diead of Scotty Smith, 
who is supposed to be in the neighbourhood; her 
confession of her fears and troubles to the 
sympathetic stranger; and the startling denoue- 
ment, usually the next morning, when she 
discovers to her astonishment that she has been 
entertaining the noted outlaw unawares and that 
her distress has been dramatically relieved by his 
generosity. 

When I was compiling this biogri^hy of 
Scotty's and I read account after account of how 
he had passed unrecognised and unsuspected 



through the countryside, even A^en he was 
known to be in a particiilai' area and eveiyone 
was on the lookout for him, I often wondered 
how he had managed to accomplish this feat. 
Gradually as I learnt more and more about him I 
was able to con&'tnict this composite picture of 
the methods he employed to avoid detection. The 
secret of his successful masquerading lay in the 
simplicity of the disguises which he affected. 
When engaged on one of his expeditions he 
seldom dressed any differently from his usual 
wont. Nor did he ever deign to wear the dyed 
wigs, thick glasses, false moustaches and other 
par^hemalia so beloved of the old-fashioned 
Victorian detective heroes. 

Apart from daikening his haii' occasionally, 
abstaining from shaving for a few days, or 
affecting a slight stoop, he u^'ually made no 
change in his personal ^pearance. But he did 
possess a remarkable ability to alter the 
expression of his countenance so that he looked 
an entiiely different person. In this transfor- 
mation he was greatly helped by his reputation as 



an outlaw. Such tales had been spread of his 
ferocity that people wlio met him for the fnst 
time were unable to believe that this genial, 
charming man with the smiling, benevolent face 
could really be the robber they expected to 
encounter. 

On the one or two occasions when Scotty did 
adopt a distinctive disguise he gave every 
indication of being a really excellent actor. 

Once, for example, when he was living in the 
Kalahari at Leitland's Pan, he played an 
extremely difficult role with great success. A 
fiiend of his, who had an interest in a mining 
venture in the Gordonia district, was disturbed 
by rumours that some very queer things were 
taking place at the mine. His suspicions were 
confiimed when he made an ^proach to the 
management. They were very secretive about the 
^^ole affair, would give him no infonnation^ 
and refused to allow him on the property. He 
therefore went to see Scotty, told him about his 
suspicions and sought his advice. 



Tlie iRltcr thought for a moment or two and 
then made up his mind. "Give me a week," he 
said, "and I'll see what I can do." 

The man was sceptical but about ten days 
later he again visited Scotty. 

"Well," he greeted him, "did you manage to 
find out anything?" 

"Yes," was the reply. "Was this ^^at you 
wanted to know^" And he gave him a detailed 
account of what he had discovered. 

His friend was surprised. "How on earth did 
you get that infomiation^" he asked. 

Scotty iaughed. "I have my methods," he 
answered. "Just go along to the secretary of the 
company and ask him ^lether he recently 
employetf a Basuto who enquired for a job and 
then after staying about a week suddenly 
disappeared." 

His friend's curiosity was aroused. He went to 

see the secretaiy and questioned him about the 
Basuto who had Lefl the mine. At first the 



secretary refiised to say anything, but afier a 
wdiile he admitted that Scott^^'s facts were 
conect. The latter could speak the Basuto 
language well, and so the only conclusion to 
which his friend could come was that he had 
disguised himself as an African and had worked 
as a labourer in the mine in order to find out 
^^atwas taking place there. 



Chapter Nine 



No Jail Can Hold Him 

During his long career, Scotty Smith had 
innumerable brushes with the law. As a rule he 
got the better of these encounters, and even when 
the police were hard on his track he usually 
succeeded in outwitting them. After all, the odds 
were heavily in his favour. He was a magnificent 
rider, he was alw^s well mounted; he knew 
every inch of the land in wiiich he operated, and 
he was as fiill of guile and trickery as a jackal. 

Even ^len arrested and safely bound, Scotty 

often managed to slip his bond? and disappear 
before he could be safely lodged in jail. 
Inevitably, however, he had some very narrow 
esc^es, and there are many accounts of these. 

On one occasion the Transvaal police really 
thought that they had cornered him. They had 
been on his trail for some hours and he had 
managed to outdistance them. They were not 
worrying unduly, becau&'e there had been veiy 
heavy rains and they knew that the frontier drift 



for v^ich Scotty was making was practically 
unfordable. When he reached the river he foimd 
that it was coming down in full spate. He had, 
however, provided himself with a pair of ox- 
bladders for just such an emergency. Hastily 
inflating them he tied them to a belt which he 
fastened round the horse's belly. He then rode 
into the swollen waters and emerged safely on 
the other side, just as his frustrated pursuers rode 
up to the opposite bank. 

On another occasion Scotty was being 
escorted to jail by a sheriff. On the way he 
slipped his handcuffs and overpowered his 
ctqjtor. Next he took a needle and some thread 
out of his saddle bags aiid proceeded to sew the 
sheriffs trouser legs together and his sleeves to 
his coat. After this he glued the man's eyelids 
fast, using mimosa gum for the purpose, and then 
rode off with the two horses, leaving his helpless 
victim to get out of his predicament as best he 
could 

Many of the Cape police, in the course of 
their official duties, got to know Scotty Smith 



very welL The IrIc CliObrd St Quintin was one 
of these, and I aiii indebted to his son, Mr CP. St 
Quintin of Vryburg, for two very interesting 
encounters ^^ich his father had with the 
redoubtable outlaw. 

It was v^ile stationed at Taungs that Sgt St 

Quintin met Scotf>' for the fnst time. It was a 
stiflingly hot day and the policeman had been out 
on a long and tiring patrol. He was returning to 
his headquarters when, about ten miles &om 
town, he saw a man sitting in the shade of a tree. 
The man had offsaddled and his horse was 
standing next to him. 

"Hullo, sergeant/' he called out, "are you 
going to Taungs? If you'll hang on for a bit I'll 

saddle up and accompany you." 

Although Sgt St Quintin did not know it. the 
stranger was Scotty Smith, and for once he was 
riding a skinny old horse in obviously poor 
condition. Nor did tike sergeant realise that the 
outlaw aheady had his eye on his own plump, 
well-bred police pony. All the way into town the 



stranger kept up a running conversation, the 

theme of which was Scottj' Smith, his sagacity^ 
and how he could outwit the authorities any time 
he wanted to do so. 

When they reached the outskirts of Taungs 
the sergeant's companion suggested an adjourn- 
ment to the neaiest hotel, so that they could 
quench their thirst. St Quintin was agreeable and 
soon they were sitting comfortably in the bar, 
trying to get cool. 

Scotty ordered two beers and then all of a 

sudden seemed to be in a hurry. He quickly 
downed his drink, rose, and strode towards the 
door. Holding it open he addressed the 
policeman: 

"Well, good-bye, sergeant," he cried. "Thanks 
for your veiy enjoyable company, but I'm afraid 
you can say good-bye to that nice horse of yours. 
My need's greater than yours." 

With that he slammed the door shut and, 
le^ing on the police pony, made off. St Quintin 
rushed out after him but by that time Scotty was 



already disappearing round the comer of the 
hotel. 

It must have given the sergeant a good deal of 
satisfaction when some years later he was able to 
arrest the outlaw on a chaige of horse stealing. 
At the time Sgt St Quintin was stationed at 
Barkly West. One day a mail galloped frantically 
up to the police post to report that Scotty Smith 
had ridden ofTwidi some of his horses. Hoping 
to catch the thief red-handed St Quintin 
immediately selected the best horse at the police 
camp and gave chase. 

The sergeant had no idea which way Scotty 
had gone but had to trust to luck that he would 
choose the same direction. He was fortunate 
because soon after settiug out he met some 
Africans who put him on the right track. 
Realising that he would never be able to catch up 
with the robber he decided to take a short cut. 
Ailer a while he met a transport rider and asked 
him blether he had seen Scotty. 



"No," the man replied. "He hasnt passed here 
yet." 

St Quintin then decided to lie iii wait for him. 
He therefore took the saddle aiid bridle off his 
horse and tied it to the wagon. Then he climbed 
under the tent and closed the fl^s. 

It was not long before he heard the sound of 

galloping hoofs. Presently they stopped and he 
heard someone talking to the ti^sport rider. 
Lifting the tent fl^ slightly he peered out. Tliere, 
as large as life, was Scotty with the stolen 
horses. It is characteristic of the outlaw that even 
^^en he was being pursued he could not resist 
the sight of a first-class steed. The sergeant's 
mount was an excellent one. and so he had 
delayed his getaway in order to bargain with the 
transport man for it. 

At this stage St Quintin jumped out of the 
wagon and grabbed the horse thief by the arm. 
"You're my prisoner," he announced. 

Scotty took his airest in good pait. "YouVe 
got me all right, sergeant," he stated, with some 



attempt at a grin, but just see how long you can 
hold me." 

St Quiiitin escorted him back" to Baikly West 
and locked him up in the local cells. Scotty, 
however, was as good as his word. The next 
morning the jailer noticed a hole in the side of 
the stone ivall of the jail. Xot only was the 
prisoner gone but he had taken one of the best 
police horses with him, and although the alann 
was immediately raised, Scotty had completely 
vanished. 

Like so many other men who had been tricked 
by the outlaw, Sgt St Quintin bore him no malice 
and in fact always spoke of Scotty Smith with 
the greatest respect and affection. 

Another man who had a veiy interesting 
encounter w^th Scotty Smith was Mr David 
Eadie. Mr Eadie, who was the magistiate of 
Upington at the time, was on an official visit to a 
remote pait of his distiict, and had airanged to 
meet his police escort at a pal'ticula^' spot on the 
veld. When he aiiived at the rendezvous the 



sergeant and his party were already waiting for 
him. To his suiprise Mr Eadie saw that they had 
a prisoner, no less a person in fact than Scotty 
Smith himself. The sergeant was jubilant at 
having captured so important a prize and he was 
taking no chance of its slipping out of his grasp. 
Not only had he handcuffed Scotty but he had 
fastened his arms round the stem of a tree, thus 
making esc^e almost impossible. 

Mr Eadie, although he knew all about Scotty's 
reputation as an escaper, was revolted by what 
he considered this inhumane method of treating 
the prisoner, and ordered the sergeant to fetter 
him in a more seemly way. The police officer 
was most reluctant to do this. Submitting to 
higher authority, however, he at length gave way 
and Scotty was handcuffed in the customary 
manner. 

That night the sergeant's forebodings caiiie 
true. As soon as everyone was fast asleep Scotty 
slipped his bonds and made his getaway. The 
next morning, ^^en the esc^e was discovered, 
the policeman was beside himself with rage. He 



had been looking forward to gaining consider- 
able kudos from hi^ valuable capture and now 
the bird had flown. He naturally blamed Mr 
Eadie and the return jouniey was completed 
under considerable restraint. Immediately Uping- 
ton was reached the sergeant, in high dudgeon, 
reported to his superior officer how the magis- 
trate had aided and abetted the escape of a 
dangerous criminal! 

As a result a departmental enquiry was held 

into the circumstances surrounding Scotty's 
dis^pearance. "But," as Mr Eadie's son, Mr 
W.V. Eadie of Benoni, told me, "far from my 
father being censured by the authorities for his 
action, he was praised for his humanitaiian 
sentiments and his conduct was held up to the 
police officers as an example of how they should 
compoit themselves under even the most 
provocative circumstances." 

And here is another example of the genius 
Scotty so often displayed for esc^ing from 
custody. He had been arrested by the C^e 
police, and was being sent under a guard of four 



mounted constables to the Kimberley jail. They 
were unable to reach their destination before 
dark and so had to spend the night on the veld. 
While tiiey were sittmg round the camp fire, one 
of the men produced a bottle of brandy. Scotty 
was their guest, although an unwilling one» and 
so as a matter of courtesy the bottle was passed 
to him first. 

This was ^^al he had hoped would h^pen. 
As usual he was carrying a number of drugs 

taken from his veteriiiaiy chest, aiid this was one 
of the occasions on which they came in very 
handy. 

He poured out a generous tot and then passed 
the bottle to the next man. But in the flickering 
shadows cast by the caiiipfne no one noticed that 
he had slipped some knock-out di^ops into the 
brandy. The men downed their drinks and the 
bottle went round again. Scotty refilled his glass 
and put it on the ground next to him. And then a 
most unfortunate accident h^pened. Turning to 
speak to one of the escort he caught the glass 
with his elbow and knocked it over. As the bottle 



was empty by this time, his second drink could 
not be replaced. 

After a while the men began to feel drowsy 
and one after another they dropped off to sleep. 
Before following tlieir example, however, the 
sergeant in charge took the precaution of 
fettering Scotty's wrist to his. 

The pri&'oner waited until he could tell from 
their heavy breathing that his captors were well 
under the influence of the drug. Then he quietly 
released himself and rising to his feet secured 
each policeman's wist? with his own handcuffs. 
Next he selected a horse, stampeded the others 
and rode aw:^. The sun was high in the heavens 
the next morning before the effects of the diiig 
rag wore off and the members of the escoit 
awoke. By that time Scotty was many miles 
away. 

Of course not all Scotty's escapes were due to 
his own ingenuity and quick thinking. Fortune 
favours the brave, and sometimes he enjoyed the 
most amazing luck. 



Take for example one of the occasions on 
which the police were hot on his trail. It had 
been a long, relentless chase, and although he 
had eventually thrown off his pursuers he 
realised that he could not go much ftirther as his 
horse was completely exhausted. In the nick of 
time he came to a homestead. The woman owner 
readily agreed to give him shelter for the night, 
and showed him wiiere he could sleep in a 
rondavel adjoining the main building. Scotty fed 
and watered his horse and then concealed it in a 
clump of trees. After this he rolled himself up in 
his blanket and was soon fast asleep. 

About midnight he heard the sound of 
approaching horses and a few minutes later the 
door opened and two policemen came in. They 
saw the recumbent form in the comer of the hut 
and one of them remained to his companion, '1 
wonder who that fellow is. Perhaps we'd better 
find out." 

His half-section yawned. "Oh, dont let's 
bother about it now. We're both dead tired. 
We^ll investigate him in the morning. 



When morning came, however, it was too 
late. Both the fellow aiid the policemen's hoises 
had dis^peared. Even when the authorities did 
manage to lodge Scotty safely in prison he 
usually had the last laugh, because as the Rev. 
John Mackensie diplomatically put it, "He didnt 
always wait for a fonnal dischai'ge." 

Scotty once gave a humorous demonstration 
of the truth of his ofi-repeated boast that there 
was not ajail in the countiy that could hold him. 
Hie new prison at Viyburg had just been erected 
and on the opening day the whole town turned 
out to see the building v^ich added so much to 
the attractions of the place. Among the interested 
spectators was Scott\", who may be said to have 
had a personal interest in the matter. The town 
folk were very proud of their jail but no one was 
prouder than the man in chai'ge. He was 
enlaiging on its escape-proof qualities when he 
saw the outlaw. He immediately invited him to 
come foiward and ceremoniously showed him 
round the premises, pointing out the cells and 
other modem amenities. 



"Well, Scotty," he said after they had 

completed their tour of inspection, "you'd better 
not get put in here, because this's one Jail you'll 
never get out of." 

Scotty studied the building in silence for a 
minute or two before contemptuously replying, 

"It wouldn't talce me more than three d^s to 
escape from this hen coop." 

The jailer was extremely annoyed at this 
insult to his impregnable fortress. 

'Til bet you £5 you can^t do it," he rejoined. 
"Right," Scotty replied 'Til accept your bet." 

He allowed himself to be taken down to a cell 
and locked in. In this way he became the jail's 
first prisoner. Of course the news of the wager 
spread like wildfire through the little town and 
crowds turned up to inspect the famous horse 
thief and to issue side bets on the outcome. This 
went on for three days, but although he took 
extra precautions, on the morning of the fourth 
day when the jailer went to visit his prisoner he 
found the cell empty. Scotty had been as good as 



his word. The following morning he returned to 
collect his money. TTie jailer paid up. All his 
efforts, however, to induce Scotty to tell him 
how he had managed to esc^e failed. Tlie laugh 
was definitely on him and he took a long time to 
live it down. For some months his fellow citizens 
made a practice of arriving at the prison and 
innocently asking its custodian whether they 
could see Scotty! 

Chapter Ten 
Stand and Deliver 

In general Scotty did not look upon his 

vai'ioiis bleaches of the law as being veiy 
heinous crimes. Rather he regarded them as 
exciting games, in which he pitted his brains and 
ability against those of his opponents. His 
attitude towaids I.D.B. h paiticulaily illumin- 
ating as it throws a good deal of light on his 
peculiar code of morals. 

'^Diamonds, he liked," his friend Mrs Schutz 
told me, "because he always said that they were 
put there by Almighty God for everyone, not 



only for the rich." He apparently had a some^iat 
similar belief about other people's horses, cattle 

and propeity. 

The fact that veiy often his victims were 
prepaied to shoot him on sight only added spice 
to the particular adventure in ^lich he was 
engaged. There aie some men who thrive on 
dangerous living, and Scotty was undoubtedly 
one of these. When his old adversary, Sgt Childs 
of the C^e police, once asked him why he had 
persisted in leading the kind of life which he did» 
he replied, "Oh, just for the excitement of it." It 
was perhaps partly for this reason that, in the 
middle of his career, he added highway robbeiy 
on a fairly extensive scale to his repertoire of 
depredations. 

During the latter pait of the twentieth ceutuiy 
the opening up of the Griqualand West diamond 
fields and the Witwatersrand gold mines led to a 
tremendous expansion of traffic between Csipe 
Town, Kimberley and Johannesburg. In the 
absence of rail facilities to cater adequately for 
this new business, enterprising men like the 



Gibsons and the Zeederburgs instituted their 

famous coaching s^eivices. By 1S86 Gibson's Red 
Star Line was despatching an average of fourteen 
coaches a week each way between Kimberley 
and Pretoria and doing the distance in the record 
time of fifty hours. In addition to tra\'el!ers, these 
coaches carried a wide variety of goods to 
Griqualand West and the Witwatersrand, and on 
their retmii trips their freight often comprised 
extremely valuable cargoes of gold bullion and 
diamonds. 

As a result an era was ushered in reminiscent 
of the d^s of Dick Turpin and his fellow 
gentlemen of the road in England. On moie than 
one occasion the imperious demand. "Stand and 
deliver," rang across the veld, as masked bandits 
dashed out from cover flourishing their 
revolvers, while the startled coach drivers made 
frantic attempts to esc^e and the trembling 
passengers clung to their swaying seats. 

Among the most prominent gentlemen of the 
veld during the period 1880-1890 were Scotty 
Smith, Jack O'Reilly, "Wilde" Jacobs, and two 



Tu£[ians ^^o worked in partnership and were 

known as Mick and Mays. The favourite sphere 
of operations of all these highway robbers was 
the stretch of road between Johannesburg and 
Kimberley. Scotty is reputed to have held up 
both the Gibson and the Zeederburg coaches in 
this area. Unfortunately, evidence of these affairs 
is very scanty. I have, however, managed to trace 
the details of two of these incidents in both of 
wduch. straneely enough, the hold-ups were 
anything but successful, and Scotty and his gang 
certainly came ofT second best. 

Attacks on the coaches had become so 
persistent that the mine owners were forced to 
adopt the most elaborate measures to safeguaid 
their valuable freight and to outwit the raiders. 
Once near Christiana, for example, Scotty and 
his men stopped the Joh aim esburg -Kimberley 
coach and seized five boxes, conspicuously 
labelled "Gold Bullion." The chests were 
extremely heavy and it was only with the 
greatest difficulty that the bandits managed to 
carry them to the Vaal River, where they buried 



them in the soft sand on its banks. They waited 

for some weeks for the h^e and ciy to die down, 
and then dug up the boxes and opened them. To 
their chagrin they found that they were filled 
with large boulders. 

On the second occasion the robbers were 

similai'ly duped. At the time Scottj' aiid some of 
his friends were prospecting for alluvial 
diamonds in the bed of the Yaal River at Bloem- 
hof. One of them had ridden north to Machado- 
doip: where a gold strike had been reported, only 
to fmd that the richness of the new fields had 
been grossly ex^gerated. He returned to Bloem- 
hof just aliead of the stage coach from 
Johannesburg. In spite of the failure of his 
mission he aiiived at the camp in astate of great 
excitement. 

"They've got a valuable consignment of gold 

on board the coach," he infonned Scottj'. "It's in 
a large, chest, strengthened with bands of hoop 
iron, and ifs stowed under the driver's seat." 



The diamond prospecting had been going 

veiy badly and the syndicate ivas practically 
bankrupt. Scotty therefore decided to take imme- 
diate action. As it was a bitterly cold night he 
told his accomplices to go into the hotel and to 
stand the driver and the guard as many drinks as 
they could, while the horses were being changed. 

He himself remained outside. As soon as he 
saw that the coach had been lefr unattended he 
went over to it and grabbed the box. It was 
extremely hea\'y and he had quite a tussle getting 
it out of the coach and into the sunounding 
darkness. 

After a ^^ile the driver and the conductor 
came out and drove off without noticing that the 
box had been removed. As soon as they were 
gone Scotty and his men caiiied their prize down 
to the empty bed of the Vaal River. It took them 
some time, however, to break open the chest as it 
was so tightly bound. At last by hurling large 
rocks at it they managed to smash it. 



When Scotty reached this stage m the story he 
always ii&'ed to pause for dramatic effect. "And 
so," he would conclude, "we crowded round, 
expecting our fortunes to be made. But all the 
box contained was lead samples." 

In his book. Stage Coach Dust, H. Klein gives 
a vivid account of how Scotty Smith once had 
the audacity to steal a complete team of horses. 

The Gibson brothers very often drove their 
own coaches and on this particular occasion 
Alexander Gibson was in charge during the 
journey between De Aar and Kimberley. 
Occupying the comer box seat on the roof was a 
tall, well-built man, dressed in rough cord riding 
breeches and leather leggings. He was quiet, 
unassuming, courteous, intellectual looking, and 
obviously a gentleman. Moreover he had a way 
with him and even induced the driver to let him 
take the reins for long stretches at a time. 

As the panting horses pulled up at earh 
stopping place he would jump down, examine 
them caiefully and pass the most flattering 



remarks about their appearance and breeding. It 
was obvious to the other travellers that the team^ 
twelve fme chestnuts, had made a great 
impression on him. What they did not know was 
that the charming stranger was Scotty Smith. 

That night, some time afler dark had fallen, 

they reached Magersfontein, the end of the stage. 
Here the horses were outspanned and, having 
been replaced by a &esh team, were driven to a 
dam about a thousand yaixls a^vay. prepai'atoiy to 
being watered and rubbed down before being fed 
and stabled. 

In the meantime the tired crew and passengers 
had adjourned to the local inn to refresh 

themselves with coffee and sandwiches. Scotty, 
however, had excused himself on the pretext that 

he wanted to stietch his legs. 

"I'll walk on ahead," he told the driver. "Just 
pick me up on the road." 

Afler a ^^ile the coach set ofiT ^ain, but 
although it was a bright, moonlight night and the 
crew and passengers kept a sharp look-out there 



was no sign of their fellow traveller. Tlie driver 
therefore made fi'equent stop^" aiid the giiaid 
blew liis horn repeatedly. There was no response; 
however, and at last they desisted and drove on 
to Kimberley, ^^ich they reached about eleven 
o'clock. 

The ca.^e of the niissmg passenger was 
immediately reported to the head office, but it 
was not until the following day that some light 
was thrown on the mystery of his dis^pearance. 
Shortly after noon a stable boy an'ived post-haste 
horn Magersfontein with the startling intelli- 
gence that the ^^ole chestnut team had vanished 

Expert trackers were at once called in, but all 

their efforts proved to be fmitless. Then, about a 
fortnight later, two of the missing horses were 
recognised pulling a cait, diiven by a local 
fanner. There was no doubt about the identifi- 
cation, as each aiiimal had on its left hip a stai' 
surrounded by a circle, which was the Gibson 
brothers' registered brand mark. It now came out 
that the thief had baitered the horses to the 
farmer in exchange for a buggy and harness. 



The rest of the team were subsequently traced 
to a Bloemfoutein auction sale, but none of them 
were ever recovered by their rightful owners. 
The latter, however, had the dubious consolation 
of learning that the man who had robbed them 
was none other than the redoubtable Scotty 
Smith. 

This stoty has an interesting, if somewhat 
unexpected, sequel. About three years later, 
Alexander Gibson and his uncle, Fred Gibson, 

were staying at the Viyburg Hotel. During 
breakfast one morning a man walked in whose 
face seemed vaguely familiar to Alex. Suddenly 
it stnick him who it was. Nudging Fred he 
wliispered, "Tliere's the chap who pinched our 
twelve chestnuts at Magersfontein." 

Fred Gibson immediately got up, sauntered 
over to Scotty, spoke a few quiet words to him, 
and then brought him to their table. Alex wasted 
no time beating about the bush. 

"You're Scotty Smith, I believe." 



"Yes," was the unabashed reply, "and you're 
Gibson of Gibson's Red Star coaches, areiit 

you?" 

"What about those twelve chestnuts of ours 
you jumped?" 

"You're right, Gibson," Scotty admitted, "I 
stole the team that night at Magersfontein, but 
I've given up that game. I'm now living a 
respectable life close by as a farmer, and I'm 
doing fairly well. If you will trust me and not 
make a fiiss about this matter, I'll see that you get 
the equivalent of those twelve horses by noon 
tomoirow. I can only give you my word as 
security' and my hand in good faith." 

Tlie Gibsons agreed to accept Scotty's ofTer 
and shook hands with him. The next morning the 
horses were delivered to their stables. They were 
accompanied by a young Bushman with a note, 
^^ich displays Scotty 's delightful sense of 
humour and his fine ^preciation of irony." 



"Dear Gibsons," it ran, "Receive from boy, 
Stompneus (blunt nose), 14 hoises. 1 
saddle and 1 bridle as promised, which I 
hope will square your account Hie extra 
animals, saddle and bridle will make up for 
the lack of quality as compared with those 
I borrowed from you. 

"If you can give Stompneus something to 
do I shall be obliged; he is a good tracker 
and odd-job boy, but although I have tried 
all I can, he caimot be cured of cattle 
stealing. If he cannot steal anybody else's 
cattle, he takes mine. 

Thank you, 
Scotty Smith." 

Some of these daring feats of robbeiy under 
arms sound very picturesque and romantic. 
Tliere was, however, nothing either picturesque 



or romantic about Scotty Smith's next exploit, 
one which was to involve Lim in his most serious 
clash with the law aud was to end disastrously 
for him. In fact the only good thing that can be 
said about it is that when he was caught he 
accepted his fate philosophically and for once 
made no attempt to esc^e his punishment. The 
affair was certainly disgraceful enough and 
shows Scotty in an extremely unfavourable light. 

It centres round Oliphantsfontein, a small 
village not fai' from Kimberley in the Boshoff 
district. A number of disreputable chaiacters 
were involved. At the time Oliphantsfontein was 
the headquaiters of a flourishing and highly 
lucrati\~e diamond-stealing and illicit diamond- 
buying racket. 

The ringleader in this illegal practice was a 
merchant, Hiomas Welford, and he was in 
paitnership with a man named Gustav Hemian 
and his younger brother, Max Herman. Welford, 
who was a man of property, owned a house at 
Oliphantsfontein known as the Homestead and 
another in the Malay Camp at Kimberley. At 



both these places he had given the two Hermans 
a room so that they could live there and be in 
close touch with him. The syndicate operated on 
a large scale and employed a number of runners 
and other agents, \^ose fimction it was to buy 
stolen diamonds on its behalf cany them into 
the Colony and dispose of them there at huge 
profits to suitable clients. 

Although Welford and the two Heimans 
possessed no licences of any kind, either as 

prospectoi's, diggers, brokers, agents or buyers^ 
they did a big business in illicit stones and their 
turnover was considerable. But in spite of the 
fact that thousands of pounds worth of diamonds 
passed through their hands every month Welford 
was not satisfied. He decided to add to his ill- 
gotten gains by robbing one of his colleagues 
and fellow I.D.B. merchants. This was Sam 
Kemp, as big a rogue, if possible, as Thomas 
Welford himself and a man who acted as chief 
runner to Sam Weil, another shady Oliphants- 
fontein chaiacter. Welford put his scheme to his 
partners and they readily agreed to co-operate. 



Max, however, only played a. very minor role in 
the events wdiich followed. 

Having selected his victim, Welfoid looked 
round for someone to carry out the actual 
robbeiy, as he had no intention of risking his 
own skin in so hazardous an undertaking. He had 
not fai' to look, aiid this is wliere Scott>^ comes 
into the picture. Scotty happened to be on a visit 
to Kimberley and had struck up a great 
friendship with a local police sergeant, Arthur 
Gerald Leigh. They seemed to be kindred spirits 
and spent much time together in the diamond 
city's numerous canteens and bars. 

Now, operating in the area at the time were 
the two notorious footpads, thieves and 
highwaymen, Mick and Mays. The Griqvialand 
West authorities were having a great deal of 
trouble with them and were particularly arEsious 
to lay their hands on Mays. A warrant for his 
arrest on a charge of theft had been issued and 
Leigh had been assigned the task of 
apprehending him. 



As soon as Welford, ^^o could be very 
obliging when it suited his purpose, heard what 
the sergeant wa^; doing he lent him a cart and 
hordes to facilitate his investigations. Hiese, 
however, proved unsuccessfiil. Leigh therefore 
returned the outfit to Welford at his house in the 
Malay Camp. It was then that Welford made the 
rather significant remark, "I'm surprised, you 
know, tiiat a man of your ability should waste his 
time as you are doing. Why dont you follow 
Mays' example?" 

"I dont understand what you mean," Leigh 
answered, but he appeared very interested all the 
same in ^^at Welford was saying. 

The latter was quick to realise this and to take 
advantage of it. "IVe got a scheme on hand," he 
continued, '^and I need the help of two reliable 
men. How about you and your pal, Scotty Smith, 
coming in with me?" 

Leigh made no direct reply, but Welford 
could see that he had taken the bait, aiid it was 
not long before he began giving him small sums 



of money, ranging in value from £5 to £10, 
M^iich he was instructed to share with Scotty. 

Nothing further happened for some tune, aiid 
it was really Scotty who finally forced Welford's 
hand. Life in the city began to pall on hiin and, 
as the lure of the desert called, he grew increas- 
ingly restless. One day he bluntly informed 
Leigh that he was leaving. 

"IVe had enough of Kimberley," he remarked, 
"I'm quitting." 

For his own sake it was a great pity that he 
did not carry out his intention, but had he done 
so it would have upset all Welford's plans. Leigh 
immediately realised this. He went to Welford 
and told him that Scotty was on the point of 
returning to Bechuanaland Welford was 
alaimed. "Persuade him not to 20." he urged. 
"Tell hiin I have something much better for him, 
and I'll pay all the expenses. 

Welford now decided to put the scheme he 

had worked out into operation with the least 
possible delay. Fate played into his hands 



because he was informed thai Kemp was leaving 

shoitly on a trip to Port Elizabeth with about 
£3,000 worth of stolen diamonds in his 
possession. 

He therefore airanged a meeting with Gustav 
Herman, Scotty and Leigh at Rowley's Oriental 
Canteen in the Malay Camp. Here, and at a 
subsequent meeting at the Royal Hotel, where 
Scotty was staying, a blueprint of the robbery 
was drawn up and the plan of campaign was 
worked out in detail. 

It is perhaps" significant., in view of the poor 
showing which Scotty makes in this affair, that 
for once he was a mere tool, carrying out the 
instmctions of another man. The master crook 
was Thomas Welford and. like his prototypes in 
modem criminal fiction, he took good caie to see 
that he personally ran no risks and that the others 
pulled the chestnuts out of the fire for him. 

The first step had been cleverly planned. 
Gustav had offered to diive Kemp in his cait to 
the railhead at Colesberg. This was a cunning 



move as it ensured thai the conspirators would 
know the precise time that Kemp set out and the 
exact route which he was taking. Then at a 
selected spot Scotty and Leigh, suitably 
disguised, were to hold up the cart and seize the 
diamonds. 

Further details were then discussed. In order 
that he could participate iieely in the scheme, 
Leigh was to obtain eight days' leave, and to 
remove suspicion from Herman a mock assauh 
was to be made on him. It was decided that the 
police sergeant should handle this while Scotty 
dealt with Kemp. Welford also agreed to buy the 
diamonds back once they had been secured, and 
after all expenses had been paid the proceeds 
were to be divided equally among the four men. 
Finally it was arranged that Herman was to let 
Leigh and Scott\' know immediately Kemp had 
made up his mind to set out. 

In view of what subsequently happened, it is 
interesting to note that at the final meeting Scotty 
asked Herman, wdio knew Kemp well, ^^ether 



he would offer any resistance when he was 
attacked. 

"No," Herman replied emphatically. 

"If he does," Scotty threatened, "111 shoot 
him." 

Not to be outdone. Leigh boasted, 'Tf anybody 
shoots, I will do so too." 

On Saturday, 17 January 1885, Scotty was 
playing billiards at Wilson's Hotel, vdien Gustav 
Herman arrived with the news that he and Sam 

Kemp were leaving from Stephen's Hotel, 
Oliphantsfontein, that veiy afternoon at two 
o'clock. 

Scotty at once sent a note to Leigh telling him 
to meet him at the Royal Hotel, whei e he would 
provide him with a horse, complete witii saddle 
and bridle. He then had a quick dinner and a 
little later picked up Leigh at the Fox and 
Hounds Hotel in Dutoitspan. Rather injudi- 
ciously, he now quite openly went into a nearby 
store and purchased two dark hats and a couple 
of yards of black crepe. He did, however, take 



the precaution of telling Leigh to keep about a 

hundied yaids ahead of him, in case anyone 
should see them leave the towTi together. 

After ik fairly long ride they reached the place 
they had agieed on. Here they chose a spot 
behind some bushes, "^^ich not only sheltered 
them from sight but gave them a good view of 
the road along which their intended victim would 
have to travel. 

In the meantime, as had been arranged, a 
small cavalcade consisting of three carts set out 
from Stephen's Hotel. In the first conveyance, 
driven by Gustav Herman, was Sam Kemp 
himself! In the second was Thomas welford and 
Max Herman, and in the third, Samuel Weil. 

Samuel Weil had, of course, nothing to do 
with the conspiracy to rob Kemp. In fact, if he 
had only known it, he was destined to be his 
fellow victim. Some time before, he had bought 
a parcel of diamonds weighing 697 carats from 
Welford for £1.100. These he had eutnisted to 
Kemp with instmctions to deliver them to a 



relative of his, Julius Weil, in C^^^e Town. It was 
only natural, therefore, that he should have 
turned out to speed Kemp safely on his way. 

The latter had pi epai ed himself well for his 
journey. Besides £30 in expense money, some 
rugs, spare clothing and other items of luggage, 
\\^iich he would require on his long trip to the 
Cape, he had thoughtfully provided himself with 
a loaded revolver. This was a very necessary 
prec^uitioQ as, in addition to the parcel he was 
carrying for Weil, he also had in his possession 
diamonds of his own weigliing nearly fourteen 
hundred carats. These he had done up in half a 
dozen separate packets, which he had secreted in 
a body -belt round his waist. 

After leaving Stephen's Hotel the three men 
first drove to the Homestead. There all of them 
except Kemp went into the house. About fifleen 
minutes later they came out again and Welford 
put on a side-show which was meant to impress 
Weil vnth the genuineness of Herman's mission. 
He ostentatiously handed his paitner a parcel, 
done up in a red handkerchief, and told him to 



ensure that it was safely lodged in a Cspe Town 
bank. Weil immediately wanted to see the 
contents, but Herman resolutely refused to show 
them to him. It was perh^s just as well for his 
peace of mind, because in reality the 
handkerchief contained not diamonds but gravel 
and small pebbles. 

Herman then climbed into the diiver's seat 
and, waving farewell to the oth^, drove ofT in 
the direction of Saltpans drift. After a \^iie 
Kemp began to exhibit some signs of uneasiness. 
"Gustav," he pointed out, "I'm sure you're 
making a mistake. Arent you taking the wrong 
road?" 

"Dont worry," Herman rejoined. "I know 
vdiat I'm doing. This is the right road." 

Herman now began to slow down a^" he 
wanted to give his fellow plotters plenty of time 
to get into position for the attack. But this tardy 
progress naturally increased Kemp's nervous- 
ness. 



"Hit up the horses, Gustav," he urged his 
companion. At this rate we'll never reach Coles- 
berg." 

"The horses are tiled," Hemian replied. "I 
think we should outspan and rest them for a 
wiiile." 

"No," Kemp shouted. "We must get on. Whip 

them up. Whip them up." Hemian. however, 
ignored these exhortations and continued to 
waste as much time as possible. 

About three quarters of an hour after leaving 
the Homestead they passed a lonely farm house. 
Tliis was the residence of Mr H.C. Geyer. a 
farmer who was later destined to give impoitant 
evidence against the hold-up men. Half a mile 
fiiitlier on was a thick clump of budi and it was 
here that Scotty and Leigh were lying in wait for 
their prey. 

It is extremely difficult to obtain a clear-cut 
picture of the actual hold-up and of the events 
\\diich followed it, because at the subsequent trial 
all four accused, as well as their victim, gave the 



most conflicting accounts of -whst really took 
place. Tlie following is, however, a fairly accu- 
rate description of what happened. 

When Scotty and his confederate first saw the 
tqjproaching cart it must have been about six 
hundred yards away. This was the signal for 
tliem to assume then' disguises. Tliey therefore 
donned their dark hats, wrtqjped scarves round 
their moutlis and pulled black veils over their 
faces. In order to camouflage their appearance 
still fiirther, Scotty had slipped on a pair of \\iiite 
trousers and a red-stiiped shirt, while Sgt Leigh 
had pulled light moleskin trousers over his usual 
attire. 

The two bandits waited until the cart was 
about sixty yaids away. Then, aiiued with 
revolvers and brandishing stout sticks, they 
broke cover and rode hard towards it. As soon as 
he saw the highwaymen racing towards the cart 
Samuel Kemp let out a startled yell. 



"Look, Gustav," he cried. "There are two men 
coming at us. Whip up the horses ! Whip up the 

horsesf " 

"They're Mick aiid Mays." Heniian bawled, 
ttying to put his companion off the scent, and 
then instead of attempting to esc^e he 
deliberately jerked on the reins and brought the 
cait to a dead stop. 

"Out revolvers," Kemp commanded - a 
command ^^ich Herman of course did not obey. 
His companion, however, ^10 was the only man 

to come well out of this unsavoury affair, drew 
his own gvm and prepaied to sell his life deaily. 

"If you come any nearer," he shouted at the 
horsemen, " I'll shoot." 

This unexpected displ^ of courage took the 
conspirators completely by surprise as they had 
expected at most a token resistance. They kept 
their heads, however and, as previously 
arranged, Leigh pretended to assault Herman 
^^ile Scotty got ready to deal with Kemp. 



Riding up to his side he called out: "Hands up! If 
you give in, no harm'll come to you." 

''No hands up," was Kemp's spirited reply. 

"If you let me come close to you," Scotty 
persisted, " I won't hurt you." 

"If you don't keep back." Kemp warned, "I'll 
file." And he was as good as his word. Without 
further preliminaries he raised his revolver and, 
aiming at Scotty's stomach, pulled the trigger. 
Tlie old outlaw had had many narrow escf^jes 
during his lifetime but this must have been one 
of his closest shaves. Fortunately for him, 
however, the gun misfired. 

Scotty immediately jumped off his horse and 
ran to the back of the cart. Quite an exchange of 
shots followed. Kemp fired twice and missed, 
while Scotty and Leigh both took a pot shot at 
him, without any luck. The combatants then 
came to close quarters. Running round the side 
of the cart, Leigh grabbed hold of Hennan and 
hurled him to the ground. The latter played his 
role well. He and the sergeant rolled over and 



over in the dust in deadly combat. Leigh soon 

gained the upper hand in, this simulated fight, 
and wrested from his opponent the dummy 
packet of precious stones wdiich he had on his 
person. 

In the meantime Scotty and Kemp had also 

come to grips. Scotty struck his opponent 
brutally over the head with his kierie, and then 
delivered another smashing blow vdiich caught 
him on the aim. As though this were not enough, 
Leigh now also joined in the assault on the 
unfoitunate Kemp, and slashed at him with his 
stick. Kemp fell back into the cart. But the fight 
had not yet been knocked out of him. He was 
trying to raise his revolver for another shot at his 
assailants when Scotty gave him a resounding 
crack on the wrist, which made him drop his 
we^on. Scotty and Leigh then grabbed hold of 
him and threw him to the ground. 

"Help, Gustav! Help! "the sorely stricken man 
cried to his false ^end, v^o had pretended to 
run away and was now standing a short distance 



ofT in the veld. Herman then came back to the 
cait but of course made no attempt to aid him. 

As theii' victim lay half-unconscious on the 
ground, Leigh searched him and removed his 
body-belt. 

"That's it;' Herman whispered. "That's it. The 
diamonds are in there," and so Leigh stuffed the 
belt into the bosom of his shirt. 

Kemp was now lying perfectly still and his 
attackers thought that he was dead. Tlie 
indomitable diamond nmiier, liowever, had not 
yet shot his bolt. Suddenly coming round, he 
jumped up and once more grappled with Scotty. 
A vicious punch to his left eye from Scotty's fist 
again knocked him down, and this time he 
mercifully remained unconscious for along time. 

The fight was al last over and the three 

conspirators, after searching the cart and 
removing some of Kemp's personal belongings, 
also pocketed the other packet of diamonds and 
the money which he was carrying on his person. 
At this stage, much to their surprise, Kemp 



suddenly st^gered to his feet and, in a semi 
conscious^ state, clambered into the cait. Herman 
got in beside him and turning the horses in a 
wide semicircular sweep drove off in the 
direction of Kimberley. In the meantime Scotty 
and Leigh had also mounted. As the cart sped on 
its w^» Leigh in a last gesture of bravado fned a 
couple of parting shots over the hordes' heads. 

Herman made for Mr Geyer's farm and Miien 

he reached it he unceremoniously dumped the 
badly battered victim of the assault there before 
returning to Oliphaiitsfonteiu. 

Samuel Kemp awoke a few hours later, 
covered with bruises and with his face bloody 
and swollen, to find himself lying on the floor of 
the fann storeroom. About midnight, Sam Weil 
and a man named Charlie Bannau arrived to 
fetch him and took him back to Oliphantsfontein 
with them. In spite of the l ough treatment he had 
received, Kemp had not been seriously injured. 
After a week in bed, he had ahnost fiilly 
recovered from his trying ordeal. One of the first 
things he did was to report the matter to Cs^tain 



Albrccht, the commandant of police at 

Kimberley, vAio immediately opened an 
investigation into the crime. 

Meanwhile Scotty and Leigh had ridden back 
to the clump of trees where they had lurked 
before the attack. They now removed their crepe 
veils aiid dark hats aiid slipped off the clothes 
which they had used as a disguise. Realising that 
they must get rid of this evidence as soon as 
possible, they rolled them into a bundle and then 
rode some distance across the veld, looking for a 
suitable hiding place. At last they found what 
they wanted - an antbear hole. Here they 
dismounted and, scooping out the entrance, 
stuffed the incriminating bundle into the hole 
and covered it with sand. 

Well pleased with themselves they returned to 
Kimberley at top speed, taking care to separate 
as they approached the towii. Scott>^ stopped at 
his hotel, while Leigh went straight to Welford's 
house in the Malay Camp. 



The four conspirators had arranged to meet at 
the Oriental Canteen and so, after a wash and 
brush up, Scotty proceeded there. He found 
Welford already waiting for him. A little later, 
Herman burst into the bar in a state of the 
greatest apparent agitation. 

"I've been robbed," he wailed m a voice of 
simulated anguish. "Those scoundrels, Mick and 
Mays, have robbed me." Then catching sight of 
Smitfi he added, "Oh Scotty, wont you help 
me?" and he ^iparently burst into tears. 

One of the bai^ loungers, a man named Joe 
Levy, who had evidently been primed for the 
job, immediately Shouted, "Don't worry, Scotty 
Smith'll catch the thief all right. And if he does, 
I'll give him £50." 

This was the cue for Thomas Welford to play 
his pait. "I'll add £150 to that amount," he 
magnanimously announced. 

But ^^ether this crude displ^ of histrionics 
had any effect in diverting suspicion from the 
real culprits is extremely doubtful. 



At this stRge Sgt Leigh also arrived and he 

aiid Scottj' had a few di inks together. Tliey still 
had the stolen diamonds on them and, rather 
belatedly, realising the danger of this they now 
decided to hide them in case they were searched. 
Hiey therefore went outside, put the precious 
stones in a handkerchief and buried them next to 
the fence which ran round the Kimberley Mine, 
Then they went back to Wilson's Canteen to 
refresh themselves. After a while Scotty 
expressed anxiety about the safety of the gems 
and so Leigh returned to the fence and retrieved 
them. This time he hid them in a rubbish he^ 
neai^ the police barracks. 

On the following morning Scotty and Leigh 
were up at five o'clock. Theii' first task was to 
fetch the diamonds, after ^^ich they hired a cab 
and set out foi the Homestead. There they met 
Welstead and the two Hermans. Going inside 
they sorted the diamonds, classified and weighed 
them, and Welford estimated that they were 
woith about £3,000. Tliey now divided these into 
three packets and entrusted them to Heiinan for 



safe keeping. It had been decided that he, Scotty 

and Leigh should take them to Port Elizabeth for 
sale. And so they set out for Philippolis in a cart, 
driven by a Malay named Turk. 

Thomas Welford, as usual choosing the safe 
course, remained behind, but before they left he 
gave them £50 for their expenses. They arrived 
at Philippolis safely and then hired another 
driver to take them to Colesberg. They spent the 
night there at the Free State Hotel, all sleeping in 
one room aiid again taking the oppoitunity of re- 
sorting the gems and repacking them in three 
parcels. One of these was given to Leigh and the 
other two to Herman. 

A day or two later they went down to the 
station to catch the nine o'clock train to Naauw- 
poort, where they hoped to get a coimection to 
Port Elizabeth. When the train came in Leigh 
found a second class compart-ment. "Come in 
here, Scotty," he shouted. 

It was sheer bad luck that of all the 
compaitments on the train he should have chosen 



the one in \diich Samuel LoTTimer was sitting, 
because Lommei' was a railway detective. Scotty 
at once recognised him and whispered the 
information to Leigh. Wanting to make quite 
certain, the latter turned to their fellow traveller 
and asked him straight out, "Are you a 
detective?" 

"Yes/' was the discomfiting reply. 

At the same time Lorrimer, who had heard 
that the notorious Mays was wmted for a recent 
murder in the Free State, immediately jumped to 
the conclusion that Leigh was the man for whom 
the police were looking. The atmosphere of 
doubt and tension in the compartment can 
therefore be imagined. 

In a clumsy attempt to divert suspicion fiom 
himself to Gustav Hemian. Leigh now tiied a 
piece of bluff, which completely misfued. 
Taking out a sheet of p^er he hastily wrote on 
it, "I'm a police sergeant, No. 8 District, 
Kimberley, and I'm on the same track as you 



He passed the note to Lorrimer, and v^ile he 
was doing this glanced significantly at the 
unfortunate Gustav. 

By this time the higiiway robbers were 
beginning to show signs of strain. At the very 
first opportunity Herman surreptitiously con- 
cealed his packets of diamonds in the bundle of 
rugs. His example was followed by Leigh, who 
waited until Lorrimer was looking out of the 
window and then quickly stuck his own parcel 
into the same bundle. 

An uneasy calm now settled on the 
compartment. At each stopping place Lonimer, 
^^ose suspicions were thoroughly aroused, 
would leave the train for a few minutes, but he 
first took the precaution of locking the 
compartment door behind him. The railway 
detective was unarmed and it seems incredible 
that the three desperate men did not oveipower 
him and escape. They made no attempt, 
however, to do this. 



At last they got to Twceddale Siding and tlien 

about five miles further on they stopped at a 
platelayer's cottage. Here Herman asked 
Lorrimer to let him out so that he could have a 
drink of water. He went round to the back of the 

cottage and took so long that the detective also 
climbed out to see what had h^pened to him. He 
found him just finishing his drink. At this 
moment the train began moving and they had to 
nm for it. Hennaii jumped through the window 
of his compaitment and Lonimer sprang into the 
van. 

The train had already gathered speed ^^en 

the guai'd said to Loirimer, "You know, someone 
threw a bundle of mgs out of the window just 
now." This remaik detemiined the detective to 
return to the compartment as quickly as possible 
to see what had been taking place in his absence. 
He therefore made his way precariously along 
the outside of the swaying coaches, unlocked the 
door and climbed in. He noticed at once that the 
mgs were missing, but none of the occupants 
^parently knew anything about them. 



Nothing fiirther occurred until they reached 

the important railway junction of Naauwpoort. 
Here events moved swiftly. As a result of 
Obtain Albrechfs investigations into the assault 
on Kemp, suspicion had definitely been directed 
towards the three conspirators, aiid when it had 
been ascertained that they were making for Port 
Elizabeth a detective named Saunders had been 
sent to Naauwpoort to watch the incoming trains 
from the Free State. 

Hennaii had now had enough of the affair. As 
soon as tliey pulled into Naauwpoort he jumped 
on to the platform and made off, as fast as he 
could, across the veld. Sauuder^", however, had 
seen him and gave chase. Before the fugitive had 
got veiy fai' he was overhauled and brought back 
to the station under arrest. 

In the meantime Scotty and Leigh had gone 
into the waiting room, \\iiere the fonnei' offered 
Lorrimer a diink, but the detective refused. He 
eventually, however, agreed to have a ginger ale, 
wdiile his two companions ordered beers. Over 
their drinks Scotty asked Lorrimer to procure a 



railw^ trolley so that tliey could go back to look 
for the mi^^ine bimdle. At this stage the 
detective decided that there had been enough 
beating about the bush. He therefore put his 
cards on the table. 

"Are there diamonds in the bundle?" he asked. 

"Of course," Scotty answered. "Otherwise we 
woultln't be bothering about it. Will you help us 
to recover them?" 

"If you make it worth my while," the 

detective said cautiously. 

Leigh now chipped in. "I'll give you £200 if 
you can get me and the bundle safely to 
Cradock," he whispered. But Loirimer was an 
honest man and he had no intention of helping 
the thieves. He was merely playing for time and 
so he replied, '^I'm afraid it's too late for that. 
There's another detective here now." 

"Cant you square him?" Leigh persisted. 

'TU try," LoiTimer promised. He die! nothing 
of the kind however. Instead he tried to bonow a 



revolver, first from Saunders and then from the 

fetationm aster In both cases he was unsuccessful. 
He then told the latter about the diamonds, but 
apparently failed to convince him of his bona 
fides. 

LoTiimer's quest for a trolley proved equally 

fiitile and so he decided to walk. Accompanied 
by Scotty and Leigh he set out along the railway 
line. But the trio had only gone about fifiy yards 
^^en they heaid footsteps behind them. They 
stopped aiid Saundei s came up. He put his hand 
on Scotty's arm and producing a wairant 
announced, " I'm arresting you." 

"What for?" Scotty asked. 

"IVe received the report of a double murder in 
the Free State, and IVe had instructions to hold 
you on suspicion of being involved." 

To me the strangest part of this highway 
robbery and its aftennath is Scotty Smith's 
inexplicable behaviour. Throughout the ^^ole 
affair be displayed none of the bold, resolute 
conduct ^^ich he exhibited on so many other 



occasions. Here he had been arrested on a 
completely false chaige aiid yet he made no 
attempt to esc^e. Instead he meekly allowed 
himself to be taken back to the station and 
locked up in the empty compartment of a train 
^^ich was on the point of leaving for Colesberg. 

After Scottj''s apprehension, Leieh and 
Loirimer continued walking along the railway 
track towards the plate-layer's cottage. Before 
long there was another interruption. They heai^d 
the sound of hoofs, aiid a man on horse-back 
came dashing past. They took no notice of the 
incident at the time. As they subsequently 
discovered, however, this man had been sent by 
the stationmaster to guard the diamonds and to 
prevent them from fallijig into their haiids. 

When they reached the platelayer's house 
Lonimer and Leigh saw to their relief that the 
bundle was there, but they were not so pleased to 
see that the rider who had passed them on the 
road had taken possession of it. They tried to 
persuade him to hand the mgs over but all their 
attempts were in vain. Just then the platelayer. 



^^o had been out, returned. Leigh now 
attempted to bluff him that he was a detective 
and, ^^dien this ruse failed, he at last decided to 
make an effort to escape, although it was a very 
feeble one. Jumping through the door he ran a 
shoit dife'tance across the veld and then, for some 
reason, stopped. Possibly he still had hopes of 
acquiring the diamonds and was reluctant to 
abandon them altogether. 

"Shall I send my boys to round him up?" the 
platelayer asked Lorrimer. 

"Dont worry," the latter replied. "Let me first 
see w4iat I can do." 

He walked towards Leigh and without much 
difficulty induced him to surrender. He then 

brought him back to the cottage and seaiched 
him. In spite of the sergeant's protests he confi- 
scated his revolver and three packets of small 
diamonds vidiich he found on him. Pdicr this he 
escorted him hack to Naauwpooit, and from 
there to Colesberg. where a forced and not 
particularly h^py reunion took place. The three 



partners in crime found themselves together 
again in a cell in the local prison. 

And now there was an extraordinary and 
highly inegulai' development in the case. Sam 
Weil, who had lost his £1,100 packet of 
diamonds in the robbery, was bent on revenge. 
At his instigation one of his relatives, Ben Weil, 
arrived unexpectedly in Colesberg, paid a 
courtesy call on the magistrate, and managed to 
bluff that ofFicial that he was a justice of the 
peace in the Free State. As a result he was given 
an order admitting him to the jail. He there-upon 
interviewed the prisoner? and gave them the 
assurance that if they admitted their guilt they 
would not be convicted but would be set free. In 
view of this promise they all agreed to make 
voluntary statements before the local magistrate, 
Tliese confessions were afterwards to play an 
important part in the subsequent proceedings 
against them. 

In due course a sheriff arrived from the Free 
State to escort the prisoners to Boshof, wdiere 
they were lodged in jail to await trial at the next 



session of the circuit court. Meanwhile Thomas 
Welford, the prime originator and organiser of 
the robbeiy, was making fistic efforts to keep 
out of the clutches of the law. His chief fear was 
that his fellow conspirators might give him 
away. It was impossible, of course, for him to 
make a direct ^proach to them. He therefore 
tried to induce a young man named Jack Foy to 
get intothejail, to interview the prisoners, aiidto 
induce them to remain silent about his part in the 
plot. 

In his desperation Welford even suggested to 
Foy that, if all other means failed, he should 
create a scene outside the prison by knocking 
someone down so that he would be airested and 
incarcerated. Jack Foy, however, refused to have 
anything to do with this scheme. In any case 
Welford's fate was sealed. His junior partner. 
Max Heiman, had known all about the 
conspiracy to rob Sam Kemp, but had taken no 
part in the actual plot or its execution. This did 
not, however, save him from being airested on a 
charge of complicity. But at the prelunioary 



examinRlion he was promised indemnity if he 
turned State evidence. This he promptly did and 

gave the whole show away. 

In addition, tbe Kimbeiley police under 
C^tain Albrecht had found a good deal of 
evidence which incriminated Welford as well as 
the other accused. Actmg on Albrecht's instmc- 
tions. Detective J.W. Collins had seaiched 
Welford's house in the Malay Camp and had 
found a blanket, a rug str^, a pair of boots and 
some socks. These had been identified by Sam 
Kemp as being part of his property which had 
been in the cart at the time of the robbery. As a 
result of these developments Welford was also 
placed under aiiest. At this stage an even more 
damning discoveiy was made. 

About aweek after the assault, the two young 
sons of Mr H.C. Geyer, on whose farm the crime 
had taken place, were wandering alone in the 
veld. They had crossed on to a property of their 
uncle, Mr Antonie Geyer^ when they noticed an 
antbear hole which had been disturbed. They 
investigated and found a bundle of clothing. 



Inside it were a shirt, a pair of trousers, two hats, 
a revolver case, a gold stiid and a couple of crepe 
veils. The boys immediately reported their fmd 
to their uncle. He handed these articles to the 
authorities, who used them as material evidence 
against the accused 

Eventually the police completed theh investi- 
gations and the trial opened at Boshof on 19 
March 1885. Mr F.W. Reitz, afterwards the 
President of the Orange Free State, presided in 
person, Mr Advocate Kraiis prosecuted, and the 
accused were represented by the best legal talent 
available. 

The case had naturally aroused tremendous 
public interest. All the accused were well-known 
chaiacters on the diamond fields, while the 
brutality of the assault and the fact that I.D.B. 
was involved stirred up a great deal of feeling. 
As a result, wlien the proceedings began there 
was some difficulty in enrolling an impartial 
jury. Counsel for the Defence, in fact, challenged 
so many of its members that the sheriff had at 



last to call on one of llie spectators to make up 
the required number. 

Alter this little contretemps had been 
successfully overcome, the four accused, Scotty 
Smith alias George Smith alias George Lennox, 
Thomas Hutchinson Welford, Arthur Gerald 
Leigh, and Gustav Hennan alias Rubenstein, 
were fonually charged, "with robbery, in that 
they did unlawfiiUy, and on the public road 
leading from Oliphantsfontein in the district of 
Boshof, to Zoutpansdrift on the Orange River, 
being armed with loaded revolvers and a 
knobkerrie, violently assault Samuel Kemp of 
Oliphantsfontein and robbed him of two packets 
of diamonds, etc., etc. 

In spite of their confessions all four accused 
pleaded not guilty. But the evidence of the 
prosecution was so oven^elming that they had 
little chaiice of rebutting the chaiges agamst 
them. One of the strongest points in their favour, 
however, was the fact that the chief witness for 
the prosecution put up such a poor peifonnance 
in the witness box. Samuel Kemp, who had made 



so valiant a defence of his life and property 

during the assault, i^peared m quite a different 
light when called upon to give evidence. His true 
character was now revealed and he was shown 
up as a dishonest, shifty character whom the 

Chief jufe'tice had. no hesitation in stigmatising as 
a most unreliable aiid untinstworthy pei&'on. 

"I think," he bluntly warned the jury, "that it 
is probable that Kemp is speaking the truth as 
regards the robbery, but when it touches any 
question about the illicit diamond trade no doubt 
he lies." 

During the course of the trial two very 
interesting legal points were raised by Counsel 
for the Defence. Advocate Steyn, who i^peaied 
on behalf of Scotty Smith, aigued the question of 
lawful possession. He contended that the charge 
of robbery gainst the accused could not be 
sustained a,s' the diamonds were known to be 
stolen and so were not in the rightiiil possession 
of Samuel Kemp. He also argued that the volun- 
tary confessions were inadmissible and should be 
disregarded as evidence because a substantial 



inducement had been ofTered to the accused to 
make them. 

In his very impartial summing up, the Chief 
Justice^ however, rejected counsel's aigumeiit on 
both these legal points and directed the juiy to 
decide the issue purely on the basis of the factual 
evidence presented. 

So sti'ong was this evidence that the jury had 
hardly left the room when it was back again and 
the foreman formally announced that it had 
found all four accused guilty of the charges 
preferred against them. 

Before pronouncing sentence, the Chief 
Justice asked the accused whether they had 
anything to say, and their reaction to this query 
throws an interesting light on their different 
characters. Scotty had decided to take his 
medicine and had the grace to remain silent. 
Thomas Welford admitted that he had received a 
fair trial. "I have uothing to s^," he stated. "I 
must be satisfied. Instead of being arobber, I am 
die robbed I lost £1,100." 



Gustav Herman simply threw himself on the 
mercy of the court. 

The only man who queried the justice of his 
ti'ial and tried to put the blame on others was the 
police sergeant, Arthur Leigh. "It is a conspi- 
racy," he exclaimed. "Men v^o have come 
against us have been doing such things them- 
selves. I mean the Weils. I was influenced by 
Weil and Scotty Smith.. ." 

Tlie Chief Justice then proceeded to sentence 
the accused and in doing so did not hesitate to 
tell them ^lat he thought of their conduct. 

"You are a sergeant in the police," he told 
Leigh. "You are a protector of the public, and 
you come into another land to commit robbery. 
You come with a dished-up stoiy, I regret such 
an absurd stoiy; better you had not told such an 
absurd thing. You, a sergeant in the police, using 
a knobkerrie and revolver. You might, in the 
strict letter of the law, be hanged, but nowadays 
a more lenient view is taken. You were stopped 



by an accident from being hauled up for 
murder." 

His opinion of Heiuiiui was if anything even 
more unfavourable. "You are a mean little 
scoundi el," he addressed him, "acting in that way 
^^ilst a fellow co-religionist was being robbed, 
and perhaps all but murdered, such a little fellow 
you are. You get used for paltry mean things, 
and here you assist in a mean way in a serious 
crime." 

As for Welford, the judge pointed out, "Hie 

evidence against you, I think, is conclusive, 
although you have a right to say there is a 
conspiracy against you; those can believe you 
who like. I believe you are the man who staited 
the whole thing. I would not wonder if you first 
originated the matter... " 

Finally he turned to Scotty and took no pains 
to hide the disgust ^lich he felt that a man of his 
breeding should have played such a tawdry role 
in the affair. 



"It is a pity that a man of your appearance," 

he remarked sternly, "should deal in stolen 
property. There is no excuse for you; it is a gross 
crime. The boundary line is getting dangerous 
for our people. It is quite an accident that Kemp 

was not killed. I took you for a man ^lo knew 
better. I will punish you severely." 

He then committed all four accused to jail for 
four years and in addition ordered Scotty and 
Leigh to receive twenty-five lashes each. The 
proceedings of the court were, however, under 
the existing Free State law automatically 
reserved for review. As a result the lashes were 
postponed and were in fact never actually 
administered. 

One other matter remained to be resolved. Of 
the parcel of 1,377 carats of diamonds, which 
had been hidden in the bundle of rugs, 1,188 
carats had been recovered - a veiy fair proportion 
of the total when it is realised to wiiai rough 
handling they had been subjected. Samuel Kemp 
did his best to save something from the wreck. 
He claimed repossession of the precious stones 



M^iich had been taken &om him. But the court 

ruled that they were stolen property, aiid had 
obviously been removed from the Kimberley 
diggings, they should be restored to the custody 
of the Griqualand West Government for safe 
keeping. Of the parcel of 697 carats belonging to 
Sam Weil nothing further was heard. There can 
be little doubt, however, that after the robbery 
Gustav Hemiai: had hidden the^-e in a secure 
place. It is extremely doubtful whether Scotty 
and Leigli ever saw them again. Probably, when 
all the fiiss had died down and they had been 
released. Heniian aiid Welford quietly sliaied 
these diamonds between themselves, without 
their fellow conspirators being any the wiser. 

As it h^pened Scotty did not remain in 
prison for very long. After being confined for a 
year his sentence wa^' remitted aiid he wa^' set 
free. In jail he proved to be a model prisoner. He 
gave no trouble and, incredible as it may seem, 
did not once attempt to escape. Perh^s this was 
because his confinement was not very strenuous. 



By exerting his well-known charm he had 
soon become very popular with his jailers, and 
on giving his word of honour not to esc^e he 
was granted permission to visit the town at any 
time that he liked during the d^. In this way 
Scotty seived much of his sentence in the bar of 
the Local hotel ! 

Chapter Eleven 

King Of The Kalahari 

Scotty 's sentence, imprisonment, and the 
severe castigation administered to him by the 
Chief Justice sqipear to have had a somev^at 
sobering effect on him. And, even if his refor- 
mation did not last long, for a time at any rate he 
seems to have led a fairly respectable life. 

Contemporaiy newspaper accounts of Scotty 
and his activities aie extremely rare. But here is 
one which s^peared within a year or two of his 
release from jail. It is taken from The Standard 
and Tran^aal Mining Chronicle of 24 March 
1888, and ^peais under the heading of "Scotty 
Smith " in the " Local and General " column. 



"This well-known character," the columnist 

wrote, "ha^" for some time past been piirsiiiiig the 
respectable profession of prospector. After a 
somewhat eventfiil career, such a one as peiii^s 
never before fell to the lot of any man, he has 
evidently at la?t come to the coiichision that a 
roiling stone gathers no moss, and resolved 
henceforth to settle down and use his talents in 
the honoiiiable and peaceful occupation he is 
now employed in. For some few years now, he 
has been at times an interesting topic of 
conversation throughout South-Afiica, owing 
principally to his eiratic chaiacten aiid the 
strange predicaments it has at intervals placed 
him in. We never knew him noted for being 
possessed of a superfluous quantity of 'gold' (no 
matter what may have been the impression of 
sundry people at certain times) and as a laudable 
ambition, Miiich would be excusable in any man, 
to obtain a little in an honourable way, coupled 
with a natural liking to a rambling life, probably 
influenced him in undertaking a lengthy prospec- 
ting tour in Bechuanaland and the protectorate, 
on behalf of a syndicate, in wdiich Loo Abrams 



of Taungs holds the chief interest. He is said to 
have been very successfiil in his searches and is 
credited with having discovered rich reefs 
showing good prospects at the Molopo River, 
Rooi Grond and other places. According to the 
Viyburg paper, the gentleman we ar e speaking of 
passed through that town during the early portion 
of the present month. Now he has rather an 
unfortunate chai'acteristic of falling into trouble 
and getting within the meshes of the law when- 
ever he h^pens to land himself in the midst of a 
civilised community, and at Vryburg he 
managed to again get himself into a little scribe, 
out of which he extricated himself ultimately by 
the payment of a small fine. According to his 
own story, told before the magistrate, he had had 
no liquor since before Christmas till he came to 
Vryburg. He started drinking Scotch wdiisky in 
the morning - and ^lether he was actuated by a 
desire to make up for lost time we carmot say, 
but he expressed his own conviction that he 
thought he 'had more di'ink that day than ever in 
his life before/ Our readers may afler this form 
their own opinion of the state in ^lich he was 



likely to be after the sun had set for a couple of 

hours, when Lieut Bmse, B.B.P., airested him 
for loitermg about his (the Lieut's) premises. 
'Scotty's' stoiy was that he lost his way and 
nqjped at the window of the Lieutenant, to 
request hhn to show him to the place wliere he 
had outspanued his cart. The Lieutenant replied 
'come along' and took 'Scotty's' arm. But instead 
of leading him to his cait he took him to the 
lock-«p. Uufoituiiately for 'Scotty,' the niagis- 
tiate was of opinion tliat a person who wished to 
enquire his 'WEy would knock at the door and not 
at the window; but taking a lenient view of the 
case he sentenced him to a fme of £1, or fourteen 
d^s' hard labour in default. 'Scotty' did not 
become a defaulter. Tlie local p^er says he is 
greatly stmck by the changed appeai ance of the 
spot where Vryburg now stands since the old 
d^s ^^en he, amongst others, lived the bold and 
rough life of Mankaroane's volunteers. He thinks 
the rei^idents of the coinitiy are acting in a short- 
sighted maimer in spending money so meanly for 
prospecting purposes. Were half the energy 
shown by them as has been shown by the people 



here, the result would, he is confident, exceed 
those realised in the countiy. So strongly does 
'Scotty' express himself. We hope he will be able 
to infuse a little spirit into some of his admire 
in those parts. It might be well for himself if he 
did so, as his own business would then probably 
keep him away and out of the places where he 
fares so badly. Town life does not suit him; we 
prescribe the country." 

Unfortunately this well^eant advice fell on 
deaf ears, and Scotty was soon up to his old 
tricks again. For a time he made Wolmaransstad 
his headquarters, and he used this as abase for 
running ai^us and ammunition to the Hottentots 
and half-breed&" who were in rebellion against the 
Gennans in South West Africa, Leaving the 
town his wagons would skirt Vryburg and then 
strike across' British Bechuanaland and the 
Kalahari Desert until they reached German 
territory. 

From Wolmaransstad, Scotty and his gang 
also operated against the Gibson and Zeedeiburg 
stage coaches and in 1889 he was reliably 



reported to be paiticiilaily active, waylaying aiid 
robbing travellers iii tlie Christiana and 
B lo emh of distiicts. 

For some yeais. appaiently, he managed to 
keep out of jail and then he was caught red- 
hauded stealing cattle. He was brought before the 
Kimberley court ou a chaige of stock theft, was 
found guilty, aud was sentenced to two yeais' 
imprisonment. This time, however, he did not 
remain in custody for very long. In fact he made 
a bold, dramatic esc^e which added consider- 
ably to his reputation as South-Afiica's most 
dai'iug jail-breaker. 

One day he was detailed with some other 
prisoners to woric at the govemoi^'s residence. 
After a while an official lode up to consult the 
governor about some matter. He dismounted and 
the waider, who should have known better, 
ordered Scotty to hold his horse while he was 
inside. This was a gift from heaven for the 
outlaw. As soon as the wai'der's back was tinned 
Scotty leapt into the saddle and rode for his life. 



That was the last that those particulai' prison 
authorities saw of the famous cattle lifter. 

It was after this that Scotty decided that the 
ai-ea round Kimberley was getting too hot to hold 
him. It was time to transfer his activities 
elsewhere. In the early 'nineties he moved a few 
hundied miles westwaids and established 
himself deep in the Kalaliaii on a faiin which he 
made his headquarters. This was at Leitland's 
Pan^ on the Molopo River. Here, at Scotty's Fort 
in the same aiea, and at King's Rest about twenty 
miles east of Leitland's Pan, Scotty farmed for 
many yeai's, without possessing any legal right to 
the ground on which he was living. In fact it was 
uot until nearly four decades later when the 
couQtiy was mai'ked out for the first time by a 
Government sui'veyor, named Jackson, that 
proper titles were issued. 



Also called Luitenant's Pan by Scotty after one of his 
favourite horses "Luitenant", and now better known as 
Lentlandspan Another Kalahari farm, which was never 
occupied by hun, but was subsequently named in his 
honour, was Scottismith m the Kuiiiman dislrict 



Scotty was now supposed to have turned over 
anew leaf, and to ha\'e settled dowii to a quieter 
and more respectable life. But this was far &om 
the truth, and while he almost certainly gave up 
highway robbery he continued to indulge in 
hori^e and cattle -lifting, gun-running and various 
other illegal activities. 

In 1891 Giroot Gert Coetzee, who was in the 
police force at the time, had been assigned the 
job of patrolling a long stretch of the Orange 
River A great deal of liquor was being smuggled 
over the border from Bechuanaland into the 
Cape Colony, and it was his duty to examine any 
vehicle ^^ich wanted to cross the frontier. One 
day he came to the faim Rooilyf. which was 
situated about seventy miles east of Upingtou on 
the north bank of the river. Hiere he found 
Scotty Smith. He searched his wagon and 
discovered three kegs of brandy, each containing 
about eight gallons of liquor. He reported the 
matter to his superior officer and Scotty was 
detained for three weeks. But the old rogue, with 
a bland look of imiocence on his face, pleaded so 



eloquently that he was unaware that it was illegal 
to take brandy across the frontier that he actually 

got off. 

While living in the Kalaliaii. Scotty continued 
his habit of suddenly vanishing and then turning 
up in the most unexpected places. And, as was 
his custom, he raiely spoke about these trips. No 
one knows, for example, what he wa£ doing in 
Durban in 1891, and it is only by accident that 
his presence there has been recorded. 

During the early 'nineties of last century the 

\^ole of South-Africa was thrilled by the 
railway race between the Cape, Natal, and 
Louren^o Marques, the prize being the harvest of 
tiade with the newly opened Witwatersrand gold 
fields. In 1892 the Cape, backed by Rhodes, won 
the race, but there was tremendous excitement 
^^en, in the previous year, the line from 
Louren^o Marques (the project which President 
Kruger was backing) crossed the Komati River 
and entered the Transvaal ai Komatipoort. Big 
celebrations were held in Louren^o Marques and 



it is possible tliat Scotty had been tliere to join in 
them. 

At any rate a steward on the Union Line 
coaster African has left this record of a scene on 
the ship, in which Scotty played a prominent 
part. In its issue of 12th January 1941, the 
Sunday Tvnes published a letter &om "Rand 
Pioneer ", who wrote: 

"We have come back from the opening of the 
Delagoa Komatipoort railw^. We were just 
leaving Durban for the Cape with a good many 

passengers and were only a few miles out when 
there was a sudden commotion. Everybody 
seemed to be chasing someone else. Eventually 
we discovered that Scotty Smith was chasing one 
King, who was the hangman at that time at Cape 
Town. 

"It ^peaied that they had been bitter enemies 
for some time. C^tain Smyth threatened to put 
them both in irons if they did not behave 
themselves. When we got to East London, where 



Smith intended landing, the morning paper came 
out and on the &ont page in big type was: 

BEWARE OF SCOTTY SMITH WHO IS A 
PASSENGER ON THE AFRICAN 

"Smith did not land, but went on to Mossel 
Bay.... I once saw him stiipped, and he was all 
scars &om head to foot. I have in my possession 
a silver cufflink wdiich he gave me as keepsake." 

It would be intriguing to know ^^al Scotty's 
connection with the Cape Town hangman was 
and why they had quaiielled, but unfoitunateiy 
there is no key to this mystery. The statement 
that Scott^^'s body was badly scaired is also 
interesting. It seems to imply that at some time in 
his career he had been flogged, but had this 
really taken place it would surely have been 
mentioned by some of the other people who 
knew him. At any rate the incident, which took 
place ^^4len Scotty was about forty-five, shows 
that he had lost none of his fiery spirit and 
aggressiveness. 



In 1892, al the age of forty-six, Scotty 
maiTied for the first time. His bride was an 
Afrikaner g'ui, nineteen year old Sarah van 
Niekerk, wlio, in spite of her youth, had also 
done a good deal of travelling in South-Africa. 
Her father was a well-sinker by profession ai»d as 
she gi^w up she accompanied him on many of 
his trips. 

Scotty once told a friend how he had come to 
propose to Sarah. "I'd been seriously ill," he 
remarked, "and fe'he had looked after me veiy 
well and had taken good care of me. When I was 
getting better I said to her ^Sarah, eh wil met jou 
trouj" and she replied, ^ Eh gee nieom nie '." 

He and Sarah were happily mairied for ^^out 
twenty-seven yeais. until his death in 1919. 
During this time they brought up a family of 
seven children; two boys and five girls. Mrs 
Gordon Lennox must have had a good deal to 
put up with from her unpredictable husband. 
Occasionally she would accompany him on tiips 
to Upington, Kuruman and other neighbouring 
towns. But, as was his custom, he would some- 



times disf^^pear for weeks, or even months at a 
time. His wife never knew wdien to expect him 
back and he seldom told her much about these 
excursions. She was alw^s aware, however, if 
he had been on a trip to the Kalahari, because 
then he would off-load a fine collection of desert 
trophies - Bushman skeletons, jackal skins, 
rodent skulls, spiders, scorpions and other 
specimens of scientific interest. 

At lii.^ faim at Leitland's Pan, Scotty had soon 
gathered together a sma!l force of men, which he 
employed on his horse-lifting and cattle-iaidmg 
excursions. This gang consisted of a couple of 
\\diite lieutenants, a number of Hottentots and 
Basters and two or three Bushmen. 

Besides the members of his gaiig Scotty had 
from time to time other European associates with 
whom he went into partnership in his stock- 
raiding and other illegal transactions. There 
were, for example, Duncan and Wheeler, who 
had a farm in South West Africa ^^ich they used 
as an assembly station for the horses and cattle 
they stole from the Germans. From there the 



animals would be driven across the frontier to 

Leitlaiid's Pan and Scotty would then take them 
through the Kalahari and dispose of them on the 
Vryburg stock maricet. 

Other weii-kuowu chaiacters, who linked up 
with Scotty from time to time, were Sancho 
Smythe. the faiiiou&" guide, scout aiid despatch 
rider, and a particularly disreputable fellow 
named Stumke. Stumke and Scotty went into 
partnership in a small trading station \^ich they 
set up at Leitland's Pan, with gun nmning and 
other less legitimate pursuits as profitable 
sidelines. The trading venture did fairly well at 
frrst, but before long Scotty and Stumke began to 
quarrel violently. On one occasion, at least, this 
led to an open fight, which Scotty abruptly ended 
by cracking his opponent over the head with a 
yoke key. Eventually their relations deteriorated 
to such an extent that the partnership was 
dissolved That would not have mattered but a 
lawsuit followed, in \\diich Scotty is believed to 
have lost a great deal of money. 



Scotty had a number of Bushmen living on 

his fann at Leitland's Pan. He made frequent use 
of them as trackers, an art in which they were 
among the finest exponents in the world. But 
they were also invaluable to him in another way. 
They acted as his watchdogs and kept him 
informed of any approaching danger so that he 
had plenty of time to take the necessary 
preventive steps. 

Appaiently. however, even they sometimes 
slipped up. Scotty had a great friend at Upington^ 
a Roman Catholic priest of whom I shall have 
more to relate. One day they were discussing the 
hard times which some people have to endure, 
wlien Scotty fell into a reminiscent mood. 

"You know. Father," he remained, "my 
Bushmen friends saved me from aiiest more than 
once. I remember a time when things were very 
bitter in the desert. We hadnt had rain for years 
and the people were slowly dying of starvation. I 
had to do something to feed my followers and so 
I took an ox here, and a cow or a sheep there, 
from the fanners. 



"Of course it was not long before this was 

reported aiid the police got on my track. One day 
they decided to send a posse to visit my place at 
Leitland's Pan. For once my little yellow people 
failed to warn me of the ^proaching raid, but 
foitmiately I saw the camel patrol when it was 
still a long way off. I was, however, in a bit of a 
quandary, because there was a wagon at the back 
of my house that didn't really belong to me, and 
it was loaded with skin^ and hides^. which I 
wasn't particulai'iy anxious to have investigated. 
So I hastily summoned my Bushmen and told 
them to take the waeon to pieces and hide the 
parts, as well as the skins, while I intercepted the 
police and delayed them with talking. 

"The sergeant must have had a good tip-off, 
because when his men airived they seemed 
confident they would fmd something. But 
although they searched the place thoroughly 
there was nothing. My people had done their 
work well. 

"To tell the trnth, Father," Scotty concluded 
with a sly chuckle, " I bore the police no malice. 



They were only doing their duty. And before 

they left I gave them a big dinner. Afterwaids 
they told me how much they had enjoyed it, but 
they never knew wiiere the meat came from!" 

On another occasion Scotty, with the aid of 
his Bushmen retainers, led the police a merry 
dance. At the time there was a rewai d out for his 
capture, and a£ a precautionary measure he had 
retreated deep into the Kalahari. Then one day he 
received a message that a particulaily zealous 
sergeant, accompanied by a small posse, had &'et 
out on his trail and had swoni that he would not 
return without him. 

Scotty immediately decided to teach the 

sergeant a lesson. He tlierefore selected a few of 
his best men and issued stiict instnictions that 
they were to keep just out of reach of the patrol. 
Every now and again, however, they were to 
show themselves and pretend to be at the end of 
their tether. In this way they were to give the 
sergeant the impression that he was on the point 
of catching up with them. They were to lead him 



on and on in a wild goose chase, further and 
further into the Kalahari. 

Tlie Biishiiien cairied out tlieii' mastert orders 
faithfully. In fact they played this new and 
exciting game so successfully that the policemen 
were enticed ever deeper and deeper into the 
desert. At last when their water supplies were 
nearly exhausted they remonstrated with their 
officer, and urged him to turn back before it was 
too late. But he obstinately refused. Gradually 
one by one his men gave up and dropped out. 
He, however, pushed doggedly on until, alone 
and deserted, he Tmally coll^sed. His water was 
fmished and he would have died had not one of 
the Bushmen, who had remained close to him all 
the time, suddenly ^peaied and by signs 
indicated that he should follow him. Summoning 
his last reserves of strength, and leading his 
equally exhausted horse, the sergeant limped 
afler his guide, and at last staggered into Scotty's 
camp. 

"I took away his wessons," Scotty remadced 
to the friend v^o told me this story, "provided 



him with food and water and allowed him to 

recuperate. When he had recovered I said to him, 
'I believe, sergeant, you swore to take me. Now, 
have a good look at me and then you can at least 
tell your people that you saw Scotty Smith. Let 

this be a lesson to you not to brag about your 
intentions until you are quite sure you can do 
what you say. 

"I then gave him sufficient food and water to 
get him to Upington/' Scotty concluded, "and I 
also provided him with one of my tame Bushmen 
as a guide until he could fmd his way safely back 
to his own headquarters." 

Living for years in close proximity to the 
primitive little yellow men of the deseit, Scotty 
got to know them very w^ell. In fact it was this 
association which earned for him the title, "King 
of the Bushmen", by "^^ich he was generally 
known among his white neighbours. In course of 
time he became acquainted with many of the 
Bushmen's most carefully guarded secrets, 
secrets which more than once saved his life in 
the relentless struggle for existence, which the 



desert exacted &om those pitted their wits 
against it. 

So bitter was this stniggle that on one 
occasion Scotty is reputed to have taken another 
man's life in order to survive. According to this 
story he had lost his among the sand dunes, 
his water bottle was empty, and his position was 
becoming desperate. 

Suddenly, to his great relief, he saw a 
Hottentot in the distance. When he got closer he 
noticed that the man was carrying an ostrich egg 

shell, which he knew must contain his water 
supply. Scotty went up to him and offered him a 
good price for a share of the precious liquid. But 
there aie times in the Kalaliai i when money h as 
valueless as the sands which compose it. And 
this was one of them. In spite of ail Scotty's 
pleadings, the Hottentot flatly refused to part 
with a single drop of the life-saving fluid. Scotty 
there-upon drew his revolver and shot him dead 

When he used to tell this stoiy in later years, 
and people raised theii' eyebrows, Scotty would 



shrug his shoulders and remark, "Well, it was a 

question of his life or mine, and I considered 
mine was of more value than his." 

This incident raises an interesting question 
about which there has been a great deal of 
controversy. Did Scotty Smith ever kill anyone 
in cold blood? Many of his fi iends have aspired 
me that this was impossible, and that whatever 
other sins he m:^ have committed he only shot 
his opponents in the heat of battle, or ^^en he 
was being hunted down and attacked. 

Mr G. Bergh, for example, wrote to me: 
"According to my father, who knew Scotty 
intimately, he was never known to have robbed 
anyone in poor c^cumstances, nor to have killed 
anyone, and the revolver he carried on rare 
occasions was a msty one with a bullet jammed 
in the barrel. When he held up drivers of coaches 
or owners of horses he did so with this same 
unserviceable weapon." 

Many of Scotty's friends have given similar 
testimony. On the other hand it must be admitted 



that when he w^laid Samuel Kemp he not only 

had a loaded revolver with him, but certainly 
used it and, a^ the Chief justice remarked, it was 
largely a matter of luck that a murder was not 
committed. 

At the time ^^en Scotty was supplying 

Bushmen skeletons to various museums there 
were widespread rumours that the facility with 
^^ich he acquired these skeletons would not 
bear a close investigation. One writer has even 
alleged that they had been preseived in chalk and 
were comparatively fiesh. In my opinion, 
however, Scotty knew where the corpses were 
buried and he had a retentive memoiy, so that 
these insinuations are probably baseless. But 
there are other episodes in his career of which it 
is not so easy to dispose. 

There is, for example, the rather sinister 
incident which Mr Fred Iiiggs of Douglas told 
me about. Mr Inggs, one of the North-west 
C^qje's best-known citizens, first met Scotty in 
1905 at Draghoender, vdiich in those days 
consisted solely of a wayside store, an hotel, a 



post office and a. small school, "stuck on miles 
and miles of bare veld ". 

Scotty was on his way to Cape Town in 
connection with !itigatiou about some laud which 
he owned. At the time the railway line was being 
constructed from De Aar to Prieska, and he was 
travelling by horse and cart to the railhead 
between these two places. 

He spent the day resting at the Draghoender 
Hotel and Mr Inggs describes him as "a typical 
Scot. He had bright blue eyes, a clear comple- 
xion and a short beard. He spoke softly, and with 

a strong Scotch accent." 

They g ot on very we 11 tog ether an d th at 
evening Scotty was telling Mr Inggs something 
about his vai ious escapades and adventures vdien 
a mail named Classens, whom Scotty recognised 
as an old prospector friend from the pioneer 
diamond diggings days at Klipdrifr, came in. He 
joined them and as it grew later and later and the 
rounds of beer circulated more and more freely. 



the reminiscences flowed on and on. All of a 
sudden Classens lowered his voice. 

"And do you remember, Scotty, the day we 
were playing caids on the diggings, and you had 
a dispute with that chap at our table and you shot 
and killed him, and how we got rid of the body?" 

Scotty hurriedly raised his finger to his lips 
and glanced significantly at his friend. He 
changed the subject and nothing more was said 
about the matter, but Mr Inggs added a note to 
the story, ^lich may or may not have a certain 
significance. 

"I know," he told me, "that after Scotty 
returned to Upington from his trip to tlie C^e he 
sent Classens £25." Then there is this story, told 
to me by Mr J. Preller of Leadmine m the 
Ti'iuisvaaK and whicli wa^' often related to him by 
his father, Mr A.O. Preller, a well known pros- 
pector in the Eastern Transvaal in the early days. 
Scotty once took possession of a large piece of 
land on the Low\"eld to the west of Baiberton 
and not veiy fai^ from the Swaziland border. He 



put up a crude house on his property and erected 

beacons. He then mfonned the Africans living 
there that in future they would have to pay him a 
tax if they wished to remain in possession of 
their lands. 

They were naturally fiirious at this treatment, 

and their attitude became so threatening that, in 
order to ^ghten them off, Scotty drove a 
number offtakes into the ground surrounding his 
residence and on these he placed some human 
skulls which he bad found in a neighbouring 
cave. This prevented the superstitious tiibesmen 
from attacking his property. Instead they 
complained to their headman, who decided to 
send five of his men to Pilgrim's Rest to seek 
redresfe" from the landdrost there. 

Scotty, heal ing of their intentions, decided to 
stop them at all costs. At a suitable place in the 
foothills of the Drakeusberg he lay in wait and 
\^en they speared he shot the lot. He then went 
to the headman's kraal and told him Ih^ he must 
enforce the new tax which he had imposed. A 
heated argument ensued and at last Scotty lost 



his temper. Jumping up he drew his large sheath 
knife and drove it violently into the ground 

"If you don't do I say," he shouted, "I'll 
stick this knife into you, O Chief, just as I've 
now plunged it into the eaith." 

This threat failed to upset the chief but the 
indunas sprang angrily to their feet and raised 
their assegais in order to avenge the insult to 
their overlord. Scotty's life was in imminent 
danger but with an imperious wave of his hand 
their leader quietened his excited men. 

"Dogs," he bellowed. "If this "^^ite man wants 
to kill me, how can you stop him? Go, fetch meat 
and beer that this matter may be discussed as 
befits men." 

And so the affair ended peacefully and Scotty 
got v^at he wanted. 

Chapter Twelve 

Confidence Trickster 

Apart from the various acts of highw^ 
robbery, brigandage and filibustering ^^ich have 



become associated with Scotty Smith's name, 
there is no doubt tliat he often lived on his wits 
and that on more than one occasion he pulled off 
business deals of an extremely dubious nature. 

Soon after his arrival at Leitland's Pan, for 
example, he is reputed to have carried out a 
piece, of sharp practice at the expense of an 
unsuspecting property owner who wished to sell 
some of his land. Scotty was prepared to buy it, 
but in order to save the lawyer's fees he 
suggested that he should draw up the sales 
contract. The seller was agreeable and Scotty 
duly presented him with the deed of sale, 
containing the purchase price and other details. 

After the mail had read the deed, but befoie 
he had signed it, Scotty slipped in a clean sheet 
of p^er, which projected for a couple of inches 
under the original contract. The seller thought 
that he was signing at the foot of this. Actually 
however, he was putting his signature to a blank 
page, A^ich Scotty subsequently filled in to suit 
himself. As the deed was properly signed, it was 



legally fool-proof, and by this means he acquired 
die land widiout paying a cent for it. 

But perfi^s the most mgenio\is story of 
Scotty's attempts at confidence trickeiy aie told 
in Trader on the Veld by Albert Jackson. Mr 
Jackson, until his deadi in 1959 in his eighty- 
seventh yeai', was a prominent Port Elizabeth 
merchant, educationist and public figure. As a 
young man he ran a trading store for many years 
at Rietfontein in the Kalahaii not far from 
Scotty's headquarters at Leitland's Pan, and he 
proved more than a match for the wily outlaw. 

"Scotty often came to my farm," he relates, 
"but I was always wary of him. At our first 
encounter he brought me a cow for barter. This I 
purchased for £3 and put into a kraal. Next day 
my sei"vant told me the cow had niu away to its 
calf at home. Three or four weeks later my boy 
came in to say that Scotty had once again turned 
up with a cow for sale. 

" Tt's the same cow. Baas,' he said. 



"Calling for my gun, I shot the cow dead there 

and then, saying to Scotty, This is the last time 
you will sell me that cow of yours'." 

This aiiecdote provide^', I think, a good insight 
mto Scotty's peculiai' mentality. He was not in 
the least upset at his duplicity being exposed or, 
as Mr Jackson puts it, "Far from being abashed 
he merely laughed it off" 

It is also a good example of his colossal self- 
confidence because, in spite of this abortive 
attempt at cheating Mr Albert Jackson, he 
actually had the nerve to bonow £^0 from him 
^^iien he met him at Draghoender some time 
later. Mr Jackson made the time-honoured 
excuse that he was temporaiily short of ready 
money. Bwt Scotty blandly infoimed him that an 
attorney, Mr Tilney, had just collected £50 from 
a Rietfontein man on his account. So impressed 
was Mr Jackson with Scotty's knowledge of his 
business affairs that he lent him the money on 
the spot. Afterwards he wrote it ofT as a bad debt. 



The story has a strange sequel. Although the 

trader had been kind enough to assist hiin, his 
action did not deter Scotty from subsequently 
trying to pull off a. barefaced swindle at his 
expense. This was rather an involved business 
which concerned the Philander Bastards, a mixed 
tribe which had come originally from Schiet- 
fontein (now Carnarvon) in the Cnpe Colony. 
They were great hunters and under their leader. 
Captain Diik Philander, they had settled at 
Middlepost, about six miles from Rietfontein. 
They had subsequently claimed a huge piece of 
teiritoiy stretching from the Orange River to the 
land of the Bondelswarts, west of the 21st degree 
longitude. Dirk Philander had been succeeded by 
his son, David, and, when the German authorities 
had refused to recognise his claim, the new 
leader had handed over his country to Great 
Britain, but not before he had ceded all his 
people's mineral rights to a Port Elizabeth 
company for a sum of £500 ayear. 

Mr Jackson, who was ninniiig a trading post 
at Draghoender at the time, acted as this 



syndicate's ^ent in its dealings with the new 
captain, D 'uk Philander, aiid so got to know Iiim 
quite well. One day Scotty told him that he had 
bought Philander's entire rights under the 
settlement "wiiich the Port Elizabeth syndicate 
had made with him. In proof of this he produced 
an impressive-looking document, witnessed by 
the Rhenish Missionary at Rietfontein, the Rev. 
Heinrich Pabst, and by Sergeant Eaton, the 
commandant of the police station. Mr Jackson 
knew their hand writing well, so that the 
document speared to be quite genuine. It was 
moreover properly stamped with the coirect 
British Bechuanaland revenue dues, which had 
been cancelled with the Upington magisterial 
stamp. Scotty now proposed to sell the 
document, \\diich wa,^ woith £^00 a year for an 
indefmite period, to Mr Jackson for £2,000. 

This was a very tempting offer, especially as 
eveiything seemed to be in order, but knowing 

Scotty as he did, the trader was dubious. He 
therefore suggested that he should first get in 
touch with the Port Elizabeth syndicate. Scotty, 



however, would not hear of this, a faet v^ich 

completely confinned Mr Jackson's sii&'picions 
that there was something fishy about the whole 
deal. He therefore proposed that as Scotty owed 
him £50 he would cancel this debt if Scotty gave 
him a £2,000 option for three months. Seeing 
that Mr Jackson was adamant, Scotty reluctantly 
agreed. The fonner then got the syndicate to 
make enquiries, as a result of which the 
document was exposed as a complete forgery. 
Apparently Scotty had managed to get hold of 
the ofEicial magisterial stamp by a trick. He had 
waited until the magistrate had left his office for 
lunch and then borrowed the stamp irom the 
office boy, who had been left in charge. 

Mr Jackson thought that this was the end of 
the matter, but although he never recovered his 
money, in believmg the worst of Scotty he did 
the outlaw an injustice. It was only some years 
afterwards that he discovered that Scotty had 
actually made a genuine effort to repay him. One 
day, while living in Port Elizabeth, he met a man 
whom he had known in his Kalaliaiu days. 



This man had had something on his con- 
science for a long time, and he now unburdened 
himself. He told Mr Jackson that before leaving 
TJpington for Port Elizabeth, Scotty had brought 
him ten oxen, which were worth about £50, and 
had asked him to remit this amount to him. 
Unfortunately he knew Scotty only too well and 
he had the gravest doubts about how he had 
acquired the animals. Not wishing to risk a 
chai'ge of being an accessory after the fact in a 
theft case, he had refiised point blank to accede 
to his request. The incident does, however, show 
Scotty's queer sense of moralit^^ as there was no 
longer any real necessity for him to have 
honoured this particular debt. 

The man from the Kalaliaii was by no means 
the only person ^^o was suspicious of Scotty 
and his transactions. Appai'ently the first 
question which people who knew him well were 
inclined to ask, when he attempted to trade or 
barter with them, was: "Where did you get it 
ftom?" 



Mr F. Buchheimer, an old gentleman now 
living ill retiiement at Sea Point, told me that in 
1904 he was working for W. Stem & Co., a firm 
of merchants and general dealers in Upington. 
Mr Stem managed his own shop and he had 
many business transactions with Scotty. 

One day Mr Biicliheimer was in the store 
when Scotty walked in, and he heard him say to 
Mr Stem, " I know you're a lover of animals, and 
IVe got just the right horse far you. He's a fine 
beast aiid I'll guarantee he'll carry you anywhere 
you may want to go in the back countiy." 

Without the slightest hesitation Mr Stem 
replied, "Look, Scotty, tell me one thing first. 
Where did you get him &om?" 

Scotty laughed. "Don't worry," he rejoined. 
"This is quite genuine. Tliere's no funny business 
about it. He belongs to me all right." 

"We!!, what do you want for him?" 

"Two cases of whisky," Scotty replied. "And 
he's worth every drop of thai." 



They went outside and had a look at the 

animal. He wa-s' a magnificent chestnut gelding 
with a lovely flowing mane and a tail almost 
sweeping the ground. Tlie bargain was clinched. 
Scotty received his ^^isky and Mr Stem 
acquired a fine hoi^e which rendered him 
wonderful sei'vice for many yeai'^v 

The kind of life which Scotty Smith led 
involved him in numerous screes with his 
unfortunate neighbours. But he had a remarkable 
facility for slipping out of the tightest of comer s. 
And his ready wit invariably stood him m good 
stead when things began to look desperate for 
him. 

Soon after he had settled at Leitland's Pan^ for 
example, an angiy neighbour rode to Taungs to 
report to the police that Scotty had not only 
stolen some of his cattle but was actually sending 
them to the town to be sold there. A policeman 
was immediately despatched to arrest Scotty, and 
it looked as though for once he had been caught 
red-handed. But he was much too clever for the 
law. When the mounted constable arrived and 



taxed him with the theft, Scotty made no attempt 
to deny that he had taken the cattle. 

"Of course I have them," he pointed out. 
"They were trespassing on my property, and so I 
ain sending them to the pound/' 

In spite of his neighbour's furious protests he 
refused to release the animals and the farmer had 
to pay the pound dues before he could recover 
them. 

Scotty was certainly up to all the tricks of the 
trade. On another occasion his gang was cairying 
out such extensive raids in the Gordonia district 
that two fanners who had suffered heaiy losses 
decided to take the law into their own hands. 
Loading their rifles they set out to interview 
Scotty. When they approached the homestead 
they, fastened their horses to a tree and went up 
to the house on foot. Scotty, who had been 
watching diem for some time, went out to meet 
them. His quick eye immediately noticed that 
they were armed and in an extremely hostile 
mood. 



"Well, my :&iends," he greeted them cordially, 
"wdiat can I do for you?" 

For once, however, his charm failed to make 
any impression. 

"It's not what you can do for us," one of the 
exasperated farmers growled. "It's what we're 
going to do to you. WeVe come to shoot you." 

"In that case, gentlemen," Scotty rejoined 
mildly, "you'd better carry on with your 
intentions. Here I am." 

This meek reply was so unexpected that the 
men were completely nonplussed. They had been 
fiilly prepared to deal with truculence and even 
violence but Scotty's complaisance took the wind 
completely out of their sails. For a moment they 
stood stock still and then without a word they 
turned on their heels and walked r^idly away. 

Suddenly they stopped, hardly able to believe 

their eyes. There in the distance they could see 
their horses being led over the horizon by some 
of Scotty's tame Bushmen. 



At this second shock all the bluster went out 
of the two men. They came back to where the 
smiling Scotty was waiting for them and quite 
humbly asked him to help them recover their 
mounts. Scotty agreed to do this and invited 
them in to have a cup of coffee wdiile they were 
waiting. 

In the meantime he gave certain instructions 
and after a while the Bushmen were seen 
returning with the horses. Li the end, such was 

Scotty's personality, the two men forgot tlieir 
grievances^ aiid they paited the best of friends. 

It was about this time, too, that Scotty 
engaged in a series of business duels with a 
Frenchman named De Jay, duels in which the 
latter invariably got the worst of matters. His 
fust transaction with the Frenchman was when 
he bought a wagon, a span of oxen and a load of 
merchandife'e from him for £800, the agreement 
being that this sum was to be paid within ayear. 

On heal ing of this, one of De Jay's friends 
told him that he could whistle for his money and 



expressed surprise that he had been such a fool 

as to trnst the outlaw, instead of demanding cash. 
The Frenchman's reply was brief and to the 
point: 

"If I hadnt given him credit he'd have taken 
them anyway, vdiereas now I have some slight 
hope that he'll p^ me back." 

Stiangely enough De Jay's optimism was 
completely justified, because Scotty drew a strict 
distinction between stealing and borrowing. If he 
borrowed anything he alw^s tried to repay his 
debt, wliereas theft well, that was quite another 
matter, and put him under no obligation to 
recompense his victim. 

At the end of the year, punctual almost to the 
day, Scotty aii ived with a bag containing the full 
amount. £800, in cash. He duly handed it over to 
De Jay and the latter locked it up in a cupboard. 
Then they began celebrating, the Frenchman 
because he had received his money back, and 
Scotty because any excuse for a carousal was as 
good as another. Before long they had had far 



too much to drink, but whereas De Jay had 
lapsed into a drunken stupor, Scotty was still 
almost as fi^sh as when he had started. He pulled 
the Frenchman's boots o£r and put him to bed 
After this he picked the lock of the cupboard, 
removed the money and took his departure. 

When De Jay eventually awoke late the 
following morning his fnst thought was for his 
£800. His worst forebodings, proved true. 
Although he made a search every penny was 
gone, aiid there ivas no doubt who had stolen it. 
The Frenchman hastily summoned the police and 
they set out after the robber. 

They came up with him, AA^iere he had 

camped for the night about fifteen miles away. 
When taxed with the theft Scotty hotly denied 
that he was tlie culprit, but in spite of his 
protestations they insisted on searching him. 
T!iey found no ^'ign of the notes. Then they 
spread out and examined the surrounding area. 
Here they came upon their first clue. Some 
distance away one or them picked up an empty 
bag. He looked at it in a puzzled kind of w^ 



because its sides had been cut out. He showed it 
to his companions and they scratched then heads 
over it, much to Scotty's secret amusement. Had 
they only known it, the clue of the mutilated bag 
should have led them straight to the hidden 
money. Sherlock Holmes would have seen it at 
once, but they were only country policemen with 
no training in detection work. And although they 
returned to the wagon and made a thorough 
search of it, they missed the obvious conclusion. 

It was not until a long time afteiwaids that 
Scotty told one of his &iends how he had tiicked 
the officers of the law. 

"You see," he explained, "I fixed the notes to 

the underside of the bed of the wagon, and then I 
tacked the sides of the bag over them. I knew the 
police would not di eam of looking there. They'd 
only think of examining the inside of the wagon, 
audi was right." 

De Jay, however, had not yet learnt his lesson 
that it was asking for trouble to have any 
financial dealings with Scotty. On another 



occasion he and Scotty eng^ed in a mRmmoth 
bridge marathon. They played ahnost contin- 
uously for a whole week, and of course the 
liquor flowed &eely. In the end Scotty collected 
all De Jay's money he had won steadily 
throughout the session and departed leaving his 
opponent in a comatose condition. 

When the Frenchman recovered he considered 
diat he had been swindled and so he reported the 
matter to tlie police. Once more they set off on 
Scotty's trail and fmally airested him. But there 
was no sign of the cash and as De Jay had no 
legal proof that he had been robbed the 
proceedings were withdrawn. Scotty is then 
reputed to have claimed and obtained £4,000 for 
illegal anest! I can, however, fmd no account of 
this case in the C^e's criminal court records. 

De J^ must have been a complete fool, 

because in spite of these shady tiicks played on 
him by his friend he actually agreed to go 
transport riding with him. This time, however, 
Scotty let him off very lightly. They were 
travelling with iiiU loads from Upington to 



Nakop and each was responsible for his own 

wagons. After they had outspanned for the first 
night the sky began to cloud over and it looked 
as though it might rain. Now one wagon in each 
convoy contained perishable goods ^^ich 
needed to be protected from the weather. De Jay 
had thoughtfully provided a large buck sail for 
this pHipose, but Scotty either did not have one 
or had forgotten to bring it with him, so he came 
ovei' to the Frenchman and asked him to lend 
him his. De Jay naturally refused as he pointed 
out that he might require it himself. Scotty said 
no more but turned in. De Jay, knowing Scotty 
by this time, took the precaution of putting the 
sail on the ground and sleeping next to it. 

About three o'clock the following morning the 
storm struck and the heavens opened. So 
violently did the rain come pelting down that the 
ground was soon converted into a slushy mess, 
jumping up, the Frenchman stretched out his 
hand for the sail but it was gone. He knew, of 
course, that Scotty had taken it to use as a 
protection for his own goods. But the wagons 



were spread out for a considerable distance and 

they all looked alike in the pitch dai'kness. After 
searching for awhile De Jay gave up in disgust 
as he was getting soaking wet. 

Just before dawn the rain stopped. As soon as 
it was hght, the Frenchman went to recover his 
sail and tell Scotty exactly what he thought of 
him. But as usual the rogue had forestalled him. 
There was the missing sheet of canvas tying next 
to the Frenchman. His load was, however, satu- 
rated while that of Scotty's was as dry as cork. 

Chapter Thirteeh 

The Desert War 

It was no mere coincidence that when Scotty 
Smith took up residence at Leitland's Pan in the 
Kalahari Desert he should have chosen this 
paiticular pait of the country, so close to the 
borders of South West Africa, for his retirement. 
Ever since the Geiinans had obtained a toehold 
in Damaraland, the English authorities had 
become increasingly iiei'vous about their colonial 
designs and territorial ambitions in Southern 



A&ica. It is almost certain therefore that Scotty's 

feiiccessful spying aiid intelligence woi'k during 
the Stellaland-Goshen campaigns had been duly 
noted by the !hnperial authorities and that he had 
been asked to settle near the German frontier for 
a very definite puipose. There, as a paid agent in 
the service of British Intelligence, it was his duty 
to keep a watchfiil eye on ^^at was h^pening 
across the border, a task, incidentally^ he 
faithfully peifomied for many years. This also 
probably explains the fact that his somewhat 
unorthodox career received a degree of 
indulgence from the police for which it is 
otheiwtse difficult to account. 

In 1884 the Gennans had declaimed a 
protectorate overNamaqua-Damaialand, andhad 
immediately subjected the freedom -loving 
Hereros, Ovambos, Namas and other tribes 
which inhabited the territory, to a cruel and 
oppressive tyranny. Gradually, as the tension 
mounted, the tribes became more and more 
restive, until in the late 'eighties of last century 



the smouldering hostility of the Namas broke 
into open rebellion. 

In the fightmg which followed, the rebels 
were led by Hendi'ik Witbooi of the Witbooi 
tiibe -a tribe which received its uaine fiom the 
fact that its members wore hats with v^ite bands 
round them. At first the odds were all against the 
Germans. Major Kurt von Fi^ancois, who was in 
charge of operations, had only a force of fifty 
soldiers to defend a vast area. His men were 
quite inexperienced iii this type of waifare, while 
his opponents knew the deseit well. As a result 
he could at first accomplish very little. In April 
1893^ however, he managed to take Witbooi's 
stronghold at Homkrans by suipi ise. But it was 
an empty victoiy because, although the old men, 
women and children were c^tured and marched 
ti'iumphmitly into Windhoek, the chief and his 
soldiers escaped unhurt. 

In spite of this success the war continued 
intennittently until at last the German authorities 
took decisive steps to end hostilities. An able 
officer. Major Leutwein, was put in charge and 



was given a few hundred soldiers and some field 
guns. The Hotteutots proved elusive, however, 
and it was only after a good deal of skirmishing 
that Leutwein managed to bring them to bay in 
August 1894, and a decisive battle was fought. 
Witbooi was badly beaten. He was forced to 
submit and, to accept terms which were suipri- 
singly lenient -a pension of £100 a year on 
condition that he retired to Gibeon and kept the 
peace. But the truce was an unea&^' one, and the 
Germans were in a state of constant suspense 
that the war might break out again at any 
moment. Nor were their feai s allayed when they 
discovered that Witbooi was secretly obtaining 
guns from Scotty Smith, Bob Duncan and other 
freebooters operating in the area. 

During the next decade there was intermittent 

fighting. In 1902 the Bondelswarts rose, and two 
years later there was a much more serious 
insurrection vdien the great Herero rebellion took 
place. In January 1904, tlie Hereros massacred 
about a thousand Gemian settlers. Showing an 
unexpected streak of chivaliy they confined their 



slaughter to the men, and did not molest their 

womenfolk aud children, or interfere with 
missioniu ies, Englidnneu and Boers. 

Even before he settled permanently in the 
deseit^ Scotty had a defmite grudge against the 
German authorities. He had acquired a large 
piece of land in the vicinity of Keetniaiishoop. 
When the occupation took place he put in a 
fonnal claim to this property. In spite of his 
representations, however, it was repudiated by 
the new owners of the country. 

Strangely enough, his next clash with the 
Germans came over an incident in which the 
freebooter was for once the innocent victim. In 
fact he spears to have had a genuine cause for 
complaint against the aiTogaut soldiers of the 
Kaiser for the high-handed way in which they 
treated him. 

He had taken his wagons across the South 
We^ frontier on a perfectly genuine tianspoit 
job and was carrying a variety of goods and 
provisions to Windhoek. There was nothing 



illegal or contraband about his load and yet on 
some tnimped-up pretext the Gennans peremp- 
torily confiscated his wagons and refused to 
grant him any compensation. 

Scotty was a good hater and he bided his 
time. He did not have long to wait, for the 
di&^turbed tinie^^ soon gave him his oppoitimity. 
Linking up with Witbooi he became his chief 
military adviser. And then from his headquarters 
at Leitland's Pan he set about systematically 
hanying the Gennans with the small freebooter 
army which he had assembled for this specific 
purpose. Scotty's private army consisted of three 
or four white lieutenants, thiity to foily 
Hottentots and a couple of Bushmen tiackei s, 
and he went to a good deai of pains to train and 
instruct it. As a result he soon had at his 
command a fonnidable little force, which he 
employed for making constant forays across the 
frontier into South West Africa. 

Scotty seems to have had little difficulty in 
arming and equipping his followers. His main 
source of supply comprised we^ons c^tured 



&om the enemy during his raids into their 
tenitoiy. But he had no scniples about obtaining 
guns by other means as well. On one occasion, 
for example, he received the tip that a frontier 
trader had just received a consignment of anns. 
Late that afternoon Scotty paid him a visit, 
accompanied by about thiity of his Hottentot 
soldiers. He told the merchant bluntly that he had 
come to commandeer his rifles and ammunition 
and that he had better hand them over imme- 
diately or else and he made a significant gesture. 

With a sinking heait the shopkeeper realised 
that resistance was useless. He was, however, a 
man of spiiit and he was detennined not to 
surrender his goods without making some 
attempt to retain them. He therefore decided to 
pit his wits against Scotty's. He prided himself 
on his ability to cany more liquor thaii most 
people and so he thought that it would be a good 
idea to make Scotty drunk. Accordingly he 
produced a case of whisky and offered him a 
glass. Nothing loath Scotty opened a bottle and 
they sat down to a drinking contest. Unfor- 



tunately for the trader, however, he had over- 
estimated his staying powers as compai ed with 
those of his opponent. When dawn broke he 
awoke with a splitting headache, crawled 
painfully out from under the table and made the 
mortifying discoveiy that Scot1y% his Hottentot 
soldiers, all the guns and ammunition, the case of 
^^isky, and most of the stores in the shop had 
vanished 

As the fame of Scotty's exploits spread, large 
numbers of Hottentots and Griquas from the 
Molopo River aiea flocked to join his standaid. 
Before long he had become a real power in the 
land, the true uncrowned King of the Kalahari. 
So great was his influence and prestige that he 
could have become a Hottentot chieftain had he 
so desired. In fact it is said that Witbooi actually 
offered him the rulership of one of his tribes, but 
Scotty was too fond of his independence to tie 
himself down in this w^. 

The war against the Hereros and the Hotten- 
tots was a ruthless struggle in ^^ich quarter was 
neither asked nor given. The Germans treated 



their enemies with the greatest cruelty and 

severity in an effort to tenorise them into 
submission. After anumber of fierce skinnishes, 
in ^^ich the chief, Marengo, greatly disting- 
uished himself, the Hereros were eventually 
driven back and forced to retreat. Accompanied 
by their wives and families and diiving vast 
herds of cattle before them, they retired to their 
stronghold in the Waterberg Mountains. There 
they prepaied themselves for a last desperate 
stand against their enemies. 

Then, much to their suiprise, they were given 
a strange and unexpected respite. Faced with the 
long, drawn-out process of encircling their 
fortress aiid staiviiig them into submission, 
Major Leutwein opened negotiations for a 
peacefiil settlement. This, however, came to 
nothing as the German authorities stiongly 
dis^proved of his action. He wa£ immediately 
relieved of his governorship and a much more 
ruthless man, General Von Trotha, was sent out 
to supersede him, with definite orders to bring 



the revolt to an end as quickly as possible by 
force of arms. 

On his arrival. Von Trotha lost no time in 
instituting a caiiipaieii of extenniiiation. One of 
his first acts was to ifisue a proclamation which 
made his intentions brutally clear. 

"Within the German border," it stated, " every 
Herero, with or without a rifle, with or without 
cattle, will be shot." And then with the aid of 
&esh reinforcements from Germany he made an 
all-out assault on the enemy stronghold. Hie 
faiiious Battle of the Waterberg followed on 1 1th 
August 1904. The Hereros fought with desperate 
courage and by nightfall that d^ the Germans 
had not yet reached their objective. After dusk, 
however, the embattled warriors reluctantly 
decided that further resistance would be useless. 
Under cover of darkness they fled through a gap 
in the encircling Gennan lines and got safely 
away. But, as Fate willed it, they would probably 
have been no worse ofThad they st^ed to fight it 
out. 



A few, under their leader, Samuel Maherero, 
managed to find saiictuaiy in British Bechiiana- 
land. The rest were either hmited down by the 
Gennans or driven into the desert to die of 
starvation and thir^. Altogether about forty 
thousand Hereros are estimated to have perished 
in this way. 

In the following year Prince Otto von 
Bismarck decided to adopt a more conciliatory 
policy. The extermination edict was repealed. 
Yon Trotlia was replaced by a civil governor, 
Herr Von Lindequist, and a general amnesty was 
proclaimed. In this way the remnants of the 
Herero tribe, about twelve thousand in number, 
were saved from annihilation. 

In the meantime the Hottentots had refused to 
give in, and for some time they continued the 
unequal struggle on their own. 

During tbese years of constant strife and long, 
drawn-out insurrection Scotty employed his 
private aiiny mainly on cattle -raiding excursions 
against the Gennans. But occasionally his men 



were involved in actual skirmishes and on one 
occasion he inflicted on the Kaiser's soldiere 
^^at he afterwards claimed to be the greatest 
defeat v\diich they sufTered during the i^ole 
campaign. The Germans were inclined to be 
contemptuous of their primitive Hottentot foes 
and sometimes failed to take the necessary 
precautions ^lilc on the march. As a result it 
was comparatively easy to lead them into an 
ambush. 

Once when Scotty's scouts reported that a 
faiily large body of the enemy was approaching, 
he hid his main force on both sides of a deep 
kloof and instructed his men uot to shoot until he 
gave the signal. Then he sent a small detachment 
ahead to lure the Gennans into the tiap. This 
detachment pl^cd its part well. It opened fire on 
the advancing foe and when the latter retaliated it 
fled in ^parent confusion into the kloof. The 
Germans were completely deceived. With yells 
of triumph they chased the fleeing Hottentots 
straight into the ambush. Suddenly Scotty and 
his men opened up itom all sides. Taken by 



surprise, the Germans Buffered heavy casualties 
and were forced to retire in disorder. 

On another occasion Scotty was engaged on a 
scouting expedition when he saw a convoy of 
about twenty German wagons, accompanied by a 
small escort, taking supplies to an outlying 
military post. Hitlden from view he watched the 
convoy halt at a water-liole and prepare to 
outspan for the night. He was particularly 
interested in the disposition of the sentries. There 
were three small koppies overlooking the camp 
and Scotty noticed that a guard was posted on 
top of each of these vantage points. 

He waited until it was dark and then rode off 
at full speed to wliere he knew Witbooi and a 
large band of his followers were resting. When 
he got there he told the chief of his discoveiy and 
together they selected about fifiy well-armed 
Hottentots. These accompanied Scotty back to 
the German encampment. As soon as he 
approached it he warned them to move with the 
utmost caution in order not to alert the enemy. 



Scottys plan was to occupy the koppies over- 
looking the camp, but in order to do tbis it was 
essential to silence the sentries. He therefore 
halted his men a short distance aw^ &om the 
convoy and then with three bocfyguards climbed 
the nearest koppie. Each bodyguard was aimed 
with a dagger and his job was to plunge it into 
the sentry's heart if he made any noise ^^ile 
Scotty was overpowering and silencing him. 
Foitunately this was not necessaiy. 

The four men crawled silently up the fu st hill, 
taking advantage of every bit of cover. Their 
intended victim failed to detect their presence 
and at last Scotty got so close that he was able to 
spring on the man's back. Tlirowing his poweifiil 
ann round the sentiy's neck he stuffed a wad of 
sacking into the man's mouth and managed to 
stifle his sti!!-boni ciy of alaim. Then securely 
binding him with thongs, Scotty warned him that 
if he made the slightest sound he would be 
instantly killed. 

The ground here was too rough for the 
sentinels to meet at the end of their beats and 



exchange the countersign as was the nonnal 

practice. One of Scotty's Witboois therefore took 
the captured man's place aiid shouted out the 
German password at the ^propriate intervals. 

The plan worked like clockwork and in this 
'w?^y each, of the sentries was in turn disposed of. 
Scotty then went down and brought up the main 
body of hi£ followers and posted them on the 
three koppies, without the Germans below being 
any the wiser. At daivii the Hottentots opened 
fue and the staitled Gennaiis, taken completely 
unawares soon surrendered. Eventually, after 
being disannedthey were released. 

Scotty had secured a rich booty in wagons, 
guns, ammunition and good^ of all kinds. Some 
of these were given to Witbooi'^^ followers and 
the rest he took across the border into British 
territory for safe keeping. Exploits of this kind 
naturally annoyed the Gemiaiis intensely aiid led 
to their offering a substantial reward for his 
c^ture, dead or alive. 



In this connection it is worthy of note that, in 
several books by Gennaii author^" dealing with 
these campaigns, numerous references are made 
to a mysterious v\diite renegade ^^o was 
frequently seen directing the Hottentot forces. 
These are obvious allusions to Scotty, and the 
military authorities eventually became so 
in&riated by the role he was playing in 
prolonging the fighting that they made more than 
one complaint to the Cape Govermnent, com- 
plaints which went unheeded. 

In one way Scotty Smith was extremely 
lucky. There were very few pitched battles 
during the Hottentot and Herero insuirections. 
Most of the fighting was of the guenilla type, 
and he revelled in this kind of campaigning. But 
although his men did little serious fighting they 
were aperpetual thorn in the side of the enemy. 

The one big weakness of the Hottentots was 
their lack of arms, ammunition and provisions. 
Scotty was their chief source of supply, and with 
his gang he smuggled a constant stream of these 
commodities to the rebels. In addition he would 



raid the German horses Emd cattle during the 
night and then nish them over the frontier, across 
the Molopo River, and into the Colony. His stock 
lifting was so well organised and on such avast 
scale that he soon found it necessary to establish 
a chain of cattle posts in vaiioiis paits of the 
Kalahari. At these cainps the cattle were fed and 
rested so that they would fetch good prices Miien 
they were sold on the open maikets at 
Kimberley, Vjybiirg and Upington. These sales 
replenished his funds and it is ii onic tliat Geiinan 
cattle supplied him with the sinews of war for 
carrying on the fighting against the Gennan 
anny. 

Neai'ly all tianspoit in the desert was by ox- 
wagon. Owing to the Hottentot waifi this traffic 
increased enormously, and the Gennan Commis- 
sariat Department was hard put to it to maintain 
the huge stocks of oxen, horses, mules and 
donkeys ^^ich it required for its wartime 
operations. With his fieebooting instincts, this 
was much too good an opportunity for Scotty to 
miss, and he carried off large numbers of these 



animals on their way to the various camps and 

disper^'al depots in South West Africa. More- 
over, when the Gennan forces were on the move 
they were accompanied by long trains of 
transport wagons and every night huge 
encampments would be set up. Thei^e were 
ahnost impossible to guard properly and Scotty 
made fiill use of this f act. 

German non-commissioned ofEicers also paid 
fiequent visit^^ to the cattle markets at Upiiigton, 
Kimberley and Viyburg. Tliey bought stock for 
the army on a large scale. Scotty's gang would 
^propriate hundreds of these cattle on their way 
to South West Africa, manipulate their brands 
and then sell them back again to the same 
N.C.O.s. This was an extremely lucrative way of 
raising money ^lilc it lasted, and it might have 
continued indefmitely. Unfoitunately for Scotty, 
it was exposed through apiece of sheer bad luck. 
At one of the camps Miiere he kept the stolen 
cattle, a guai'd went down with sunstroke, and 
the cattle, breaking loose at just the wrong 



moment, were seen by some of the non-commis- 
sioned ofEicers. 

The Hottentot resistance dragged on &om 
year to yeai% but the odds against its leaders were 
too great. They were eventually crushed and 
forced to come to terms with their Gennm 
conquerors. In 1907 peace at last descended on 
the troubled land. The Germans, however, had 
long memories, and they never forgave Scotty 
for the part he had pl^ed against them. 

As the First World War ^proached, they also 

discovered that he was a spy in British pay and 
that he was sending extremely valuable reports 
of ^^at was h^pening in South West AKca to 
Intelligence Headqu alters. I have it on the 
authority of Mr H. J. E. DumbrelK a fonner 
Director of Education in British Bechiiaii aland, 
that at least on one occasion they complained 
bitterly to the British authorities that George St 
Leger Gordon Lennox, accompanied by his 
brother-in-law. Shorty van Rooyen, had paid an 
unauthorised visit to the eastern part of their 



territory, ^^ere he had been observed conduc- 
ting himself in ahighly suspicious manner. 

When this official ^proach produced no 
tangible results, the Germans put a price of 
20,000 mailcs on Scotty's head, and they made a 
number of determined efforts to lay their hands 
on him. They did not succeed, because he had 
learnt discretion with the years, and he did not 
again lightly risk his life by venturing into their 
territory. 

Scotty was a brave man, but he never made 

the slightest attempt to disguise his fear of what 
the Kaiser's representatives would do to him if 
they managed to get him into their power. As 
late as 1913, for example, while on an expedition 
in the Kalahaii with Major C.A. Anderson, the 
latter suggested that they should visit the 
Rietfontein police station and from there cross to 
the conesponding Gennaii frontier post in order 
to obtain a permit to shoot in that area. Scotty 
immediately replied, "You can cross the border 
if you like, M^or, but I'm certainly not going to 



accompany you. I'm much too valuable in the 
eyes of the squareheads to take any chances/' 

Scotty's attitude on this pomt is fiilly 
coiToborated by Lieut- Co Ion el H.F. Trew. the 
Deputy Commissioner of Police for the Cape 
Western Area, In 1914 he met the outlaw ^^ile 
the latter was scouting in the Kalaliaii neai' the 
South West African boundaiy. Trew asked him 
^^ether he had been in German territory. 

"No," Scotty emphatically answered. "I'm 
afraid to do so. Tlie Germans have a price on my 

head, because of the damage I caused them 
during the Hottentot wais. They'd shoot me on 
sight if I gave them the slightest opportunity." 

Chapter Fourteen 

The Good Samaritan 

While he was living at Leitland's Pan, Scotty's 
family gradually increased, until eventually he 
had five daughters and two sons. Tlie outlaw was 
something of an autocrat and, when his 
daughters grew up, it must have taken a fair 
amount of courage to p^ court to them. 



Aspiring suitors never knew ^lat kind of 
1 eception they were likely to receive &om the old 
man! 

Scottj' hini&'elf once told a friend what 
h^pened when a young policeman called at his 
homestead in the Kalahari on a routine tour of 
inspection. These official visits were greatly 
appreciated by the isolated fanners in those days, 
as the mounted constables on their rounds 
gathered in all the local gossip, family talk and 
scandals and carried these with them from farm 
to faim. 

Scotty was therefore justifiably annoyed 
^^en, having signed the young fellow's book, he 
found that the policeman was much more 
interested in one of the girls than he was in his 
host and soon abandoned him altogether in 
favour of his daughter's company. Now Scotty 
was not the man to brook this kind of slight with 
impunity. When the constable at last managed to 
tear himself away from his charming companion 
and prepared to take his departure, he was 



amazed to find tliat his horse had mysteriously 
disappeared from the stable where he had lefi it. 

Scott>' was equally suiprised, aiid uot only 
emphatically disclaimed a!l knowledge of wiiat 
had h^peued^ but eagerly joiued in the search 
for the missing steed And then an amazing state 
of affairs' was revealed. By some stranee, 
fortuitous coincidence, ail Scotty's horses had 
vanished into thin air at the same time, and he 
had not a single mount available to offer the 
unfortunate guaidian of the law. In the end the 
latter was forced to walk the long way back to 
headquarters, through the desert sands in his 
heavy riding boots - an experience guaranteed to 
cure even th e m ost ai'dent Rom eo of his 
lovesickness. And, although he made the most 
searching enquiries, the policeman never 
recovered his horse. What had h^pened to it 
only Scotty and his Bushmen accomplices ever 
knew, and they never spoke about the matter. 

It is not given to many people to become a 
legend during their own lifetime. Scotty, how- 
ever, was one of the few men who achieved this 



distinction. For nearly twenty years he lived on 
his fann at Leitland's Pan, and his isolation in the 
desert served only to enhance, if anything, his 
fame and reputation throughout the length and 
breadth of South-A£ica. Soon, in fact, his name 
was so generally known that wlierever he went 
he was treated with a mixture of fear and respect, 
which did nothing to allay the feeling of secret 
pride which he had in his owii exploits. Even 
vAiGn he was quite an old man. people took care 
not to annoy or offend him. Li his book. Dragons 
are Extra, for example. Major Hastings tells us 
that wheuever Scotty happened to iq^peai' on the 
market square at Vryburg the toughest chaiacters 
would either give him a wide berth or politely 
make room for him. 

During his sojourn at Leitland's Pan, Scotty 

paid fiequent visits to Upmgton. "He was such a 
public character," Mr Buchheimer, who was 
resident there at the time, informed me, "that as 
soon as he arrived, the news spread r^idly, 
'Scotty's in town', and crowds would turn out to 
greet him as he passed." 



Nor was Scotty's celebrity confined to the 

ordinary man in the street. His name had 
penetrated to the highest circles in the land, and 
leading South-African personalities were eager 
to make his acquaintance. Once, for example, 

soon after Union, the Govern or- Gen era! was 
visiting Upington when he saw a distinguished- 
looking old man standing on the station platform. 
He made enquiries and» fmding out that it was 
Scotty Smith, he immediately walked over, 
greeted liim cordially and had a long conversation 
with him. 

At the hotel, where he usually stayed ^^en in 

town. Scott\' Avas always assured of aii 
tq^preciative audience eager to listen to tales of 
his various adventures and escapades. He had 
another attraction for the men ^lo clustered 
round him in the local bai. Among his vaiied 
talents he was an expeit at all kinds of card 
games, and he was also an adept at sleight-of- 
hand, a.s many unsuspecting strangers found to 
their cost. 



Once in the Upington Hotel Scotty pulled o£r 

the old pea-and-thimble trick in order to 
confound a local farmer named Strauss. This 
man was notorious for his meanness, and for the 
way in ^^ich he dodged payment when it came 
to his turn to stand a round of drinks. One day 
Albert Jackson happened to be in Upington. He 
met Scotty at the hotel and the subject of 
Strauss's stinginess cropped up. Scotty thereupon 
bet his companion that he would force the old 
skinflint to pay for champagne for all those in 
the bar at the time. 

Soon afterwards Strauss called in for his 

customary drink. He had never seen the pea-and- 
thimble trick before and fell for it. Scotty let him 
win once or twice to whet his ^petite and then 
began to fleece him, while the spectators ^^o 
were in the plot egged his victim on. So 
confident was the faiiner of his ability to spot the 
pea that it was not until he had lost £5 that he 
desisted. Then to his intense disgust he saw 
Scotty order champagne all round and settle the 
account with the money he had just won. 



On anollier occasion Scotty was standing in 
the street when two men approached. As they 
drew near, he heard one of them remark, " Isn't 
that Scotty Smith, ^lo's supposed to be such an 
expert at card tricks?" 

"Yes," his companion rep he d. 

The man immediately went up to Scotty and 
shook hands with him. 

"I understand you do all kinds of funny things 
with caids," he remaiked. "Well, here's £20 
which says you can't take me in," and he puUed 
some notes out of his pocket. 

Scotty, of course, could not ignore this slur on 

his fe'kill, so they adjourned to the hotel, where he 
produced a pack of cards and performed a trick 
^^ich completely bamboozled his challenger. 
The latter was so annoyed that he refused to pay 
up and called Scotty'^ peifoniiance "a work of 
black magic". The latter was furious and 
demanded his money at once. When the man still 
would not honour his bet, Scotty adopted such a 
threatening attitude that his opponent suddenly 



changed his mind and gave him the £20 without 
further ado. 

Scotty went into the bai' and stood drinks all 
round. He paid for them with the wager money. 
Then scooping up the change he took up his 
position near a shop, ^^ere he proceeded to 
distribute what wa&" left of the cash to every aged 
Coloured mail or woman who passed. 

Scotty usually kept out of politics, but ^^en 
an Upington hotel keeper named Koch offended 
his sense of patriotism, he did not hesitate to 
come into the open and register hii^ vehement 
protest against his action, as will be seen £^om 
the following letter ^lich he wrote to the local 
magistrate: " 

Upington 

Sund^, 27th January, 1895. 

To the C.C. andR.M. 

Sir. 

In defiance of the Queen's regula- 
tions Mr Koch of the Upington Hotel 
insists on floating a foreign flag on 



his flagstafir, which flagstafiT is on the 
main street. Queen's regulations aie 
explicit on this point. The Union 
Ja^k on top and a foreigner must 
place the flag of his country under if 
he wishes to put his flag rp. 
Therefore I aBritish bom subject and 
sworn defender of my Queen and 
countiy respectfully request you in 
the absence of the officer comman- 
ding the B.B.P. to have the obnox- 
ious flag removed to prevent force. 

I have the honour to be, Sir, 

Your obedient seivant^ 
Geoi^e St Leger Lennox." 

In many ways Scotty Smith was a strange 
maii^ but perhaps the strangest thing of all 
about him was that he could treat some people 
in the most bnital and mthless manner, and yet 
to others he would show outstanding kindness 
and consideration. Mr Herbert Steyn, who 
knew him well, described him. for example, as 
being "kind-hearted, sympathetic and vicious". 



Probably he considered that anyone who 

wafe" strong and fit was quite enable offending 
for himself, whereas the young, the helpless 
and the forlorn invariably brought out the best 
in him and excited his most chivah'ous 
instincts. The unselfishuess with \\'liich Scotty 
went to the aid of those in distress was one of 
the more endearing traits of the rough old 
man's character, and it has done much to 
mellow his reputation as South-Africa's bad 
man, and to wipe out the memory of some of 
the evil deeds ^lich he committed during his 
long and varied career outside the law. 

Take, for example, the case of a certain Mr 
Brown, about which old-timers at Upington 
still occasionally talk. Brown was one of those 
nondescript individuals ^lo wander aimlessly 
from place to place, destitute, fiiendless, and 
without anyone to turn to in time of need. 
When he arrived at Upington round the turn of 
the century no one knew where he had come 
from or anything about his antecedents. It was 
obvious only that he was in an advanced stage 



of tuberculosis. The hotel keeper, taking pity 
ou thi^ strny piece of flotsam, gave him abed 
for anight or two. 

Scotty happened to come into town at this 
time and healing about Brown went to see him. 
As he looked at the homeless hobo coughing 
his life away he realised that Upineton would 
probably be the man's last earthly port of call. 
He therefore summoned the proprietor and told 
him to keep Brown there as long as he lived 
and to see that he received every attention. 

"ri! pay for his board," Scotty promised, 
"and for anything else he requiies." 

He next inteiviewed a local doctor, asked him 
to take Brown as a patient and agreed to be 

responsible for his fees and for any medicines 
which he might need. He also engaged two 
Coloured men to nurse him, so that he would 
have constant attention, day and night. In this 
way he brought some comfort into the man's last 
days on earth. A few weeks later the old fellow 
died and then this Good Samaiitan, the villain of 



a thousand dubious enterprises, ordered a fine 
coffm to be made for him, and paid all funeral 

expenses. 

The story which follows, although it belongs 
to a much earlier period in Scotty's life, typifies 
his very genuine affection for young people and 
his readiness to go to their assistance ^^en they 
were in trouble. 

One day he was on a visit to Graaff-Reinet, 
and had taken a room at an hotel on the market 
square. It h^>pened to be stock fair day and the 
place was crowded. That afternoon there was a 
heavy thunderstorm and the roads became 
practically impassable, so that most of the 
farmers and their wives had to spend the night in 
town. 

At the hotel at which Scotty was staying there 
was a shy, modest, self-effacing youngster, not 
yet out of his teens. He was a very efTeminate 
type and the last person in the world one would 
expect to become involved in an hotel brawl. Yet 
that was what h^pened to him. 



After dinner the hotel guests adjourned to the 

sitting-room aiid eui impromptu concert was held, 
during the course of which someone found out 
that the young man was a talented musician. He 
was immediately pressed to pl^ for the 
gathering. At first he refused, bnt eventiiaTly he 
was persuaded to take his seat at the piano and 
was soon giving a fme presentation of some of 
the sentimental songs and melodies so popular in 
the Victorian era. 

The audience was enjoying this impromptu 
conceit when a big, surly brute got up and strode 
towards the piano. Shaking his fist in the young 
man's face he yelled: 

"Stop that infernal noise. IVe had enough of 
this rubbish. Stop it at once, d'ye heai?" 

The poor musician was taken aback. "But, 
sir" he pleaded, "people asked me to ..." 

"Don*t argue with me," the bully roared. 
"When I say stop, you stop." 

Without more ado he seized the unfortunate 
youngster by the back of the neck and hurled 



him to the floor. There were angry muimurs of 

protest but the boy's assailant was a huge fellow 
and no one made a move. 

It was then that Scotty stood up. Quietly he 
made his way to where the man was standing 
and looked him straight in the eye. Speaking 
veiy slowly and deliberately he announced: "We 
say we want that boy to pl^, and I say he shall 
play." 

"Oh," said the man, mimicking Scotty, "you 
say you want the boy to play. I say he wont play. 
Now what are you going to do about that. Mister 
Smait Alec?" 

Scotty soon showed him. Picking up a glass 
of beer, v^iiich was standing on an adjacent table, 

he hurled its contents into his face. With a roar 
of anger the bully attacked him, aiid a short but 
bloody fight took place. Before long Scotty 
managed to get in a hard jab to the stomach and 
followed this up with a perfect left to the jaw. 
His opponent crumpled and fell to the floor with 
all the fight knocked out of him. Scotty then 



stooped down and seizing him by the scruff of 

the neck and the seat of the pants dragged him to 
the door and hurled him into the gutter. 

"Now." he panted, "we say we don't want yon 
back, and I say you won't come back. What're 
you going to do about it?" 

With this parting shot, Scotty went up to the 

piano and. patting the youngster on the shoulder, 
said kindly, "It's all right, sou, carry on. That 
fellow won't interfere with you again, I'll see to 
thai." 

Another interesting example of Scotty 's 

chivaliy and his detestation of bullies was told to 
me by Col. E. W. Woon, who was saved from an 
extremely embarrassing situation by the free- 
booter just over sixty-five yeais ago. To-day Col. 
Woon is living in retirement in East London, but 
when this incident occurred he was still a mere 
youngster, a coiporal in the C^e Mounted 
Police. 

In 1896 rindeipest swept through the Taimgs- 
Vryburg districts, and cattle herds were ahnost 



annihilated. In order to check the spread of the 
disease the police were instnicted to destroy all 
infected animals. This led to a great deal of 
bitterness with the African tribesmen, and ^^en 
some of Chief Galishwe's cattle were killed, his 
followers broke into open rebellion. 

Police reinforcements were sent to restore 
order. Shots were exchanged and a fight took 
place at Border station in ^^ich Piet Gasibone, 
the chiefs brother, was fatally wounded by a 
police sergeant. As a result the w!iole area was 
thrown into a state of alarm. There was fear of an 
attack on Mafeking and Vryburg and both these 
towns went into laager. 

The position was relieved, however, when a 
detachment of the police and the Kimberley 
Regiment arrived at Pokwani. Only token 
resistance was encountered and the town was 
c^tured aiid burnt. Galishwe fled to the 
Langeberg and the rebellion collap&'ed. 

At the conclusion of hostilities the C^e 
Mounted Police were shifted to Viyburg, where 



they went into camp at the police headquarters 

on the outskirts' of the towii. On the day the men 
arrived they had had a long and tiring ride, and 
so that evening Woon and a fellow corporal 
decided to visit the local hotel for a drink. When 
they arrived there they ordered two beers. 
Standing at the counter was a sullen-looking, 
black -bearded man. He had a revolver str^vped 
to his hip and they subsequently leaiiit that he 
was joining Dennisoii's Horse. For the past 
fortnight he had been living m the bai^ and had 
been drunk practically all the time. Apparently 
he was a devotee of Guinness stout and he must 
have had a certain amount of money because in 
those d^E it retailed in Viyburg at four shillings 
a bottle. 

The man looked up as they came in and gave 
them an insolent stare. They took no notice as 
they were not looking for tiouble. Unfortunately, 
however, the man was obviously in a truculent 
mood and spoiling for a fight. As the baitender 
poured out the beers, which they had ordered, the 
drunkard turned slowly round and deliberately 



swept their glasses off the counter on to the 
floor. 

Col. Woon smiled rem in is cent ly as he 
recalled to mind that incident out of the far 
distant past. 

"Quite candidly," he admitted to me, ''my 
half-section and I didnt know ^^al to do. After 
all it is a pretty deadly insult to upset a man's 
beer in this way. But we were in uniform and 
very keen on our profession and we didn't quite 
know to ^lat extent we would be blamed if we 
were involved in a bar-room scrap. Moreover we 
were only youngsters, and although we were not 
exactly afraid of this big hulking brute, we knew 
in our heaits that we stood no chance against 
him. There he stood facing us. with an evil grin 
on his face and his great ham-like fists clenched, 
just waiting for one of us to make a false move. 
Fortunately, while we were still hesitating a 
miracle occurred and the matter was taken out of 
our hands. 



"Sitting by himself in a comer of the bar was 
a tall, poweifiilly built man, whom we'd baldly 
noticed ^^en we came in. Suddenly, moving 
with amazing agility for a man of his size, he 
appeared right behind our tormentor. He tapped 
the latter on the shoulder and the fellow swung 
round and squaied up to him. 

"Who the hell ai e you?" he demanded with an 
oath. Tm Scotty Smith/' was the reply, delivered 
with abroad accent and in the quietest of tones. 

Col. Woon laughed '"You know," he said, 
"after all these years, I'm still amazed when I 
think of the extraordinary transfonnation which 
took place in the bully's altitude. He turned pale, 
took a couple of steps backwards and then 
without uttering a word, he whiiled round and 
almost ran out of the door. Scotty himself could 
not help smiling. 

"'Och, mon,"' he said with a broad grin. 

"'That rubbish! Tve shot half a dozen better men 
than yon, in fair :frght in the street outside this 
very pub "'. 



Scotty's boast can be taken with a grain of 
salt. But Coiporal Woon and his companion 
never forgot the kindly stranger who so 
opportunely intervened in a matter which was 
no concern of his, just to save two youngsters 
&om embarrassment and possibly a severe 
beating-up. 

It was not only in these rather magnificent 
Beau Geste deeds of chivalry, however, that 
Scotty excelled. It was perii^s even more for 
his little, eveiyday acts of kindness aiid 
consideration that his memory is cherished by 
so many people. 

When Scotty, spent the day with Fred Inggs 
at Draghoender on his way to the Cape it struck 
him that although he and his friends were 
drinking heavily, Mr Inggs had not touched a 
drop of liquor. He did not s^ anything al the 
time, but on his return trip he stopped at 
Draghoender and called on luggs. 

"I noticed," he told him, "that you don't 
drink, so I thought I'd bring you something nice 



to eat from the C^e," and he handed over a box 
of delicious applet, which he had gone to the 
trouble of procui iQg for him. 

Scotty. a& I have pointed out, had a 
paiticulaily soft spot for young people. This 
appears over and over ^ain in the testimony of 
men and women who knew him personally. Mrs 
Else Gerber of Sea Point, for example, told me 
that her late husband came to South-Africa &om 
Geimany as a youth of eighteen in 1884. After 
he had been here a little while he heard that 
there were good prospects of making money in 
the Kalahari. With a young cousin he proceeded 
to Grootdrink, an isolated little place on the 
Orange River, inhabited in those days only by 
Bushmen. Here, Mr Gerber and his cousin built 
their primitive shop and acquired a few head of 
cattle. 

One day a man rode up to the store and 
introduced himself as Scotty Smith. The two 
youngsters had never seen the outlaw before, 
but his reputation had preceded him. They were 
unable to conceal their trepidation that he might 



take the few possessions they had managed to 
acquire. However their fears proved groundless. 
He immediately saw the effect he had had on 
them, and he went out of his way to put them at 
their ease. 

"Don't worry, you fellows," he reassured 

them. "I can see you're poor, hard-working 
youngsters. Nothing'll h^pen to you. Your 
things are quite safe with me. I only rob the rich 
to help the poor." And he stayed at Grootdrink 

for a few days to see how they were getting on, 

before taking leave of them. 

Here is another anecdote about Scotty which 
was related to me by Herbert Steyn. Once when 
Mr Steyn was on a hunting trip in the Kalahari 
he was living on the gaiiie he shot and was 
using tsamma melons to quench his thirst. 
Suddenly he came upon a sight he had never 
expected to see in the desert -a herd of cattle. 
They were Fries land- Jersey crossbred cows, 
about twelve in number, and were in excellent 
condition. 



Mr Stcyn immediately came to the 
conclufe'iou that they had been stolen. He at once 
reported the matter to the police at Rietfonteiti 
and the sergeant in charge suggested that they 
might belong to Scotty Smith. It seems ironical 
that the law, which had so often had to hunt 
Scotty down for ^propriating other people's 
stock, should now do its best to restore his 
property to him when it had been taken by 
someone else. 

The sergeant got in touch with Scotty and he 
caine more than seventy miles from Upington to 
examine the animals. They were his cattle all 
right aiid he was naturally grateful to Mr Steyn 
for being instmmental in their recovery. He 
therefore picked out the best cow and gave it to 
him as a present. But the latter reftised to accept 
the gift. 

"After all," he told Scotty, "it's the kind of 
thing anyone would do." 

"All right," Scotty rejoined. "If you don't 
want it, keep it for your baby son." This Mr 



Steyn did. The cow has long since died, but to- 
day the soil is a well-known medical 

practitioner. 

Mr Jim Hope of Stilcom in the Trans\'aal 
gave me this further delightful example of 
Scotty's kindness to children. Many years ago he 
met an old lady at Livingstone, Scott\' Smith's 
name came up and she mentioned how she had 
once made his acquaintance at a large family 
gathering on a fann in the Kroonstad district. He 
was passing through at the time and was invited 
to stay for dinner. 

"He was a veiy big man," she told Mr Hope, 
"with a huge red beard, and he sat next to me at 
table. I was shy and a little frightened because I 
knew he was Scottj' Smith, the horse thief and 
highwayman. He had such nice kind maunei^ 
and spoke such good English that I really liked 
him and he gave me a golden sovereign, a 
fortune for a child of nine." 

There is no doubt, too, that Scotty frequently 
prefened to do good by stealth and to hide his 



generosity under the cloak of anonymity. Take, 

for example, tlii^ ^toiy told to me by Mrs C. 
Schutz, a one-time resident of Upington, who is 
now living in Kimberley. 

For some yeais tiiere had been no rain in the 
Gordonia district. Times were hard and Scotty 
and the local priest were discussing the teirible 
famine that would ensue unless the dioiight 
broke and broke quickly. "You know, Scotty/' 
said the priest, 'Tm in a quandaiy what to do. 
My funds aie almost exhau-sted and eveiy day 
some of my flock come to me with the same 
pathetic tale, ^Father, we have no money and no 
food and our children are dying of starvation 

Scotty did not say a word, and shortly 
afterwards his visitor left. 

The next nioming when the Father went to his 
church to say mass the fu^t thing he saw was 
three large bags of kafir beans standing on his 
stoep. There was no indication where they had 
come from, but the priest knew that there was 



only one man in Upington "^^o could have put 
them there. 

"It was a real Godsend," the prie-st confided to 
Mrs Schutz, "and it undoubtedly lielped to save 
many young lives. I knew, however, that it 
would never do to enquire too closely into how 
Scotty had acquired them. In any case I ivas fully 
aware that if I rejected his gift it would moitally 
o£fend him and that was the last thing in the 
world I wanted. So I accepted the beans as a gifl 
from heaven. I appeased my conscience with the 
recollection that Scotty never robbed the poor, 
but only the rich." 

Chapter Fifteen 

Scout And Intelligknce Agent 

After Galishwe's defeat at Pokwani and his 
subsequent flight to the Langebeig, he continued 
to cause the C^e authorities" a great deal of 
trouble. In 1897, largely as a result of his 
incitement, tfie A&icans in tfiat area rose in 
rebelhoii and a force under Col. Dalgetty had to 
be sent to subdue them. Scotty's aid was again 



enlisted and he did very vahiable work for die 
expeditionary force as an intelligence agent and 

scout. 

The rebelhon, however, was easily suppressed. 
Gahshwe fled to tiie Kalaiiaii and a price of £500 
was put on his head. In die desert he was hunted 
down by C^t. C. G. Dennison and eveiitiially 
c^tured. He was tiied at Kimberley and 
sentenced to a long term of imprisonment. 

After the collapse of the Langeberg fighting, 
Scotty was able to return to his home at Leitland's 
Pan to resume his ordinary occupations. But not 
for long. Two years later, in 1899, the Anglo-Boer 
War broke out and he once more joined up and 
was assigned to British Intelligence. 

In his edacity as a secret service agent, Scotty 
Smith had some remaikable experiences. Unfoitu- 
nately, however, true to the traditions of that tight- 
lipped body, this is a part of his life about which 
we know little, and although he wa&" usually 
prepared to talk about his other adventures he 
immediately lapsed into silence, even when he 



was in his cups, if anyone was indiscreet enough 
to question him on this ch^ter in his career. 

In spite of this, stray pieces of information 
have leal^ed out from other sources which give 
some indication of how invaluable his assistance 
must have been to the British High Command. In 
fact so successflil was Scotty's espionage woik 
that before long tlie Boers put a substantial piice 
on his head and, when peace was made, die Cape 
Government, as a reward for his meritorious war 
record, decided to overlook his former misdeeds 
and graiit him a free paidon. 

The Commander-in-Chief, Lord Kitchener 
himself, evidently had a very high opinion of 
Scotty, and freq\iently gave him special commis- 
sions, when he was paiticulaily aiixious to gain 
infonnation about the enemy's plans and 
intentions. The general seems to have had a 
particulaily soft spot for the rough-and-ready 
frontiersman. Although a stem martinet himself 
and a model of circumspection, he was big 
enough to i^preciate it ^len tbe old rogue 
actually had the audacity to cock a snoot at 



military officialdom, as the following story 
shows. 

Tliroughout the ages, people in authority hsve 

repeatedly expressed their weary exasperation at 
the long-winded, verbose reports written by their 
subordinates. Unfortunately the concise, cryptic 
despatch is as rare as it is felicitous. 

Perhaps no one has quite equalled Julius 
Caesar's diamatic description of hisvictoiy over 
Fhamaces, King of Pontis, in 47 BC. : Veni, vidi, 
via. {" I came, I saw, I conquered") But there 
have been maiiy similar attempts. There ii^. for 
example, the famous report of the British 
Admiral who, having gloriously overwhelmed 
the enemy's fleet in battle, wrote a laconic 
despatch to the Lords of the Admiralty in which 
he stated: "Enemy defeated. Their losses as per 
margin." 

Scotty's humorous effort, although it referred 
to much less world-shaking events, deserves to 
rank with these terse gems from the past. 



In the latter stages of the Anglo-Boer War, 
British lutelligence in South-Africa began to 
suspect that despatches from European countries 
inimical to the British cause were being sent to 
South West A&ica and from there were being 
taken through the Kalahari to the various Boer 
commanders in an effort to strengthen their 
morale. This suspicion was confirmed Miien two 
of the enemy were shot and copies of such 
documents were found on their bodies. If 
promptly foiwaided to headquaiters the infor- 
mation in them would have been of great value 
to the Commander- in- Chief. Unfor-tunately this 
had not been done and Scotty and ^ome other 
scouts wore now given peremptoiy instructions 
to search the bodies of any of the enemy whom 
they shot and to send anything found on them 
immediately to militaiy headquaiters. 

Shortly afterwards a report from Scotty 
arrived. It read: "Monday, March 15th. 
Patrolled in the neighbourhood of Rietfontein. 

Two of the enemy opened fire on me. One had 
£1 7s 6d, in his pockets. Remitted herewith." 



Afler closely studying this trenchant 

communication. Kitchener remarked to one of 
his officers^ "By gad. Sir, that's the finest 
cryptic: message IVe ever received. " 

And then he added with a wistiiil smile, "I 
wish some of my staff would emulate Scotty 
Smith's example. " 

One of the rare occasions on which Scotty 
was in an expansive mood and prepared to talk 
about his Anglo-Boer war experiences was 
during his expedition in the Kalahari with 

Major Anderson. They had had a !one but 
satisfying trek, and were sitting round tlie camp 
fire one evenings pleasantly relaxed after a 
delicious supper, in which gemsbok steaks had 
been the piece de resistance, when Scotty 
leaned back, stretched himself, and suddenly 
remarked to his companion: 

"You know. Major, during the war the 
enemy was after my blood and I had some 
pretty naixow shaves. Soon after hostilities 
star ted a number of men living in the desert and 



surrounding areas formed a commando and one 

of the fu st things they did was to plan an attack 
on my place at Leitland's Pan. 

"Fortunately I was forewarned. Unknown to 
the commando my Bufihmen foUowers had 
shadowed their movements and had kept me 
informed of their intentions. When my spies 
told me that the raid was imminent, I abandoned 
my house. Leaving my kraals stocked with 
cattle as a bait, I retired into the desert with my 
private aimy of about two dozen Hottentots, all 
of v^om 1 had trained to be dead shots. That 
night the commando anived and took posses- 
sion of my property. 

"We had not, however, retreated far. By 
dawn I had posted my small force on the 
highest dunes overlooking the Boer encamp- 
ment. As soon as it was light and the enemy 
began to sth, I opened the proceedings by firing 
the first shot at the man whom I recognised as 
their leader. He fell mortally wounded. This 
was the pre-arranged signal for my soldiers to 
shoot: The effect was so devastating that the 



commando broke and fled, leaving behind two 
wagons loaded with rifles, ammunition and 

stores, all of Gem; an make." 

Scotty paused, took a sip of the hot cocoa 
mixed with tsammajuice, which they invariably 
drank as a nightc^, and then continued, "I 
realised, of course, that as soon as the new&" of 
what had happened leaked out a much larger 
body would be sent to rec^ture my place. So I 
thought it prudent to evacuate Leitland's Pan 
while I still had the chance. Accompanied by 
my small anny and taking with us my cattle, 
wagons and other goods I therefore retired to 
Upington, where I handed over the plunder I 
had captured to the militaiy authorities. I was 
then commissioned to fonu a body of Coloured 
scouts. By this time my enemies had grown 
considerably in strength. They now numbered 
two to three hundred men, and they let it be 
known that if they c^tured me or any of my 
followers they would shoot us. 

"That, of course," he added significantly, 
"cut both ways." 



Scotty l^sed into silence and stared 
meditatively into the glowing embers of the 
fire: It looked as though he had come to the end 
of his reminiscences, for the time being at any 
rate. Fortunately, however, M^or Anderson had 
got to know his man, and so he carefully 
refrained from asking him any questions or 
trying to lead him on. This would have been 
anathema to Scotty and he would immediately 
have retreated into his shell. Instead the Major 
contented himself with passing a few compli- 
mentary remarks about the incident, and after a 
^^ile his discretion was rewarded. 

Scotty got up, put some more wood on the 
fire and then, resuming his seat, related another 
yam how he had once esc^ed capture by the 
skin of his teeth. 

"Late one afternoon," he recalled, "I was out 
scouting with my Hottentots along the noith 
bank of the Orange when I spotted two men 
watering their horses some distance down the 
river on the opposite side. Hiis place was 
densely covered with thorn trees, and I suspected 



thai a comiTiRndo was hidden in the vicinity. So, 

keeping well under cover, we made a detour to 
reach a high piece of ground overlooking this 
point. When wc got to our objective I looked 
carefiilly out, but we had e^dently not been 

cautious eitough. The commando had seen us 
and some of its men were aheady crossing tlie 
river at a drift higher up in order to cut oflF our 
escape route to Upiiigtoii. while others were 
fording the Orange lower down to prevent our 
retreat in that direction. 

"We were now in a critical position, because 
it was obvious that these two detachments would 
soon combine in an all-out attempt to c^ture us. 
Tliere was, however, one thing in our favour. 
The sun was just about to set and I reckoned that 
it would be dark before the attack could be 
carried out. This might help us to ehide our 
assailants if only I could find a short cut down to 
the river. I hadnt much time but I crawled 
ai'oimd until I discovered just what I was looking 
for a naiTow. precipitous tiack. We managed to 
head our horses down this until we reached the 



river's edge. We then swam them through to the 
opposite bank. 

"We were now out of immediate danger, but 
before leaving the place I sent one of my men to 
reconnoitie the commando's encampment. He 
returned after a ^^ile and reported that only a 
feiv men had been left behind to guard the camp. 
They were busy cooking their supper, and were 
quite unsuspicious of our presence. 

"It sounded very tempting," Scotty admitted 
with a reminiscent smile. "But I had strict 

instnictions to watch the movements of the 
commandos and not to fight unless it was abso- 
lutely necessary, so we did not molest them. 
Instead we rode safely back to Upington, wliere I 
presented a fiill report to the military autho- 
rities." 

After Major Anderson had related the above 
incident to me, he commented, "This episode is, 
I think, typical of Scotty, and demonstrates his 
courage, resourcefulness and quick thinking 



when hard pressed, all qualities ^^ich must have 
got him out of many a tight comer." 

The Anglo-Boer War stoiy, however, ^^ich I 
like best about Scotty. is the one which 
illustiates his essential humanity, the occasion 
^^en he returned a hfe for a life, Piet de Villiers 
and Scottj' Smith had known one another for a 
long time and were good ^ends. But, as 
h^>pened so often during that tragic struggle, 
they suddenly found themselves on opposite 
sides. 

Piet, in charge of a small commando, had 
been out scouting and was riding across the 
Kalahari in the vicinity of Areach^. His men 
were making their way towards an isolated farm 
house when, as they travelled silently over the 
sand dunes, they suddenly sighted a man in the 
distance. He was moving about among some 
small bushes, and as they got closer Piet 
recognised him. It was Scotty Smith, and for 
once he had been caught in the open with 
no^^ere to hide. 



He, however, kept his head. Completely 
ignoring the approaching commando he began 
diligently searching in the scrub for some 
imaginary object. Hie old scout was completely 
at Piet de Villiers' mercy, but the latter, because 
of their longstanding friendship and with a 
magnanimity that does him credit, instructed his 
men to pretend not to see the outlaw and so they 
rode past him to the farm house. 

Piet was much amused at Scotty's bluff and he 
himself displayed a delightful sense of humour. 
Having reached the homestead he told the owner 
to send a message to Scotty warning him to be 
more careful in fiiture not to loose things in the 
bushes, as this was a dangerous pastime and 
might, if it happened again, lead to his being 
shot. 

About a fortnight later Piet was ^ain out on 
a scouting expedition. With a couple of men he 
passed down the dusty, sandy bed of a river, in 
^^ich there were a number of dried-up wells. 
As this small band rode unconcernedly along 
they little knew that standing in one of the wells 



was a man with a rifle trained on Piet. That man 
was Scotty Smith, and he had his finger on the 
trigger when he suddenly saw who the leader 
was. Lowering his gun he let the party pass 
without firing a shot, in gratitude for Piet's 
having spared his life. 

The sequel throws an inteiestiiig light on 
Scotty's ingrained reticence. Although he met 
Piet on several occasions afler the war, for 
more than a dozen yeais he kept his own 
counsel about how he had once held his life in 
his hands. 

During the 1914 Rebellion, Piet de Villiei^ 
was second-in-command to General Manie 
Maritz, one of the rebel leaders. And it was only 
after he had been captured aiid then released 
that Scotty for the first time mentioned the fact 
that he had been hidden in the well, with orders 
to shoot, vdien Piet and his patrol had passed. 

Soon after he had been set free, Piet returned 
to Upington and Scotty went to call on him. 



"Hullo, Kaiser Bill," he called out jocularly. 
"The King of England comes to greet His 
Imperial Majesty. And if it hadn't been that you 
let me go at Areachap, I'd have shot you dead 
when you passed the well that d^. But after 
v^at you'd done for me, how could I?" 

An ironical result of the Boer Wai' was the 
fact that because of the services which he had 
rendered the British cause, Scotty was not only, 
as I have mentioned, given a free pardon but 
was actually made a justice of the peace at 
Leitland's Pan. In those days a J.P. had consi- 
derably more judicial powers than he has to- 
day, and Scotty really enjoyed himself exer- 
cising magisterial authority over the Hottentots^ 
Basters and Bushmen who came under his juris- 
diction. But it must often have tickled the old 
brigand's sense of humour that the mail who had 
so frequently clashed with the law should now be 
its upholder and administrator. 



Chapter Sixteen 

Bushman Bones 

Scotty Had A Finger in many pies Rod 
possessed a restlessness of spirit which took 
him too many strange places. Just after the 
Anglo-Boer War, for example, he became 
interested in what is known as the Ghansi Trek, 
one of those minor race migrations which have 
more than once led a section of the people of 
South-Africa to abandon their farms and seek 
the Promised Land in some other, far-distant 
part of theii' coimtry. A few years before the 
war broke out, this inherent urge to trek had 
taken possession of a few Free State Boers and 
their families. 

The leading person behind the move was a 
member of the Volk^raad. Count Drotsky, 
whose idea it was to found a European 
settlement in Northern Bechuanaland near Lake 
Ngami. Cecil Rhodes was approached and he 
agreed to fmance the scheme. A^' a preliminaiy 
slep a small band of men was sent to spy out the 



law. They returned with a report that the 
country was suitable for fanning and seven 
families eventually set out under the leadership 
of Count Drotsky's son. Unfortunately they lost 
their leader, who died from malaria on the way, 
but they managed to obtain large estates and 
settled down at aplace called Gliansi. 

Scotty, ^^o had his own sources of 
infonnation, and had heard about the trekkers, 
now decided to follow them up in order to see 

how they were getting on. He therefore 
undertook the long journey to Ghansi, where he 
made the acquaintance of two Australian 
adventurers who had seived in the colonial 
forces during the Anglo-Boer War. 

These two men, after securing their release 
from the Anny, had bought a small buck wagon 
and a span of oxen in which they had travelled 
from De Aar to Johannesburg. There they had 
sold the buck wagon and oxen and had 
purchased a light spring wagon and some 
donkeys. Then they had set out for Ghansi, 
which they had reached safely after an arduous 



trip. On their arrival at the new settlement they 
found that the trekkers were in a bad way. 
They were fever- stricken and without many of 
the bare necessities of life. Their biggest 
problem was the fact that the nearest market 
was at Vryburg, four hundred miles aw^. 

Scotty and the Australians soon became 
friends, and feeling soiry for the settlers they 
agreed to take their surplus cattle northwards 
in an attempt to dispose of them. The three 
men set out and, largely through Scotty's 
knowledge of the countiy, were able to reach 
Maun on the Okavambo swamps. From Maun 
they made their way to the Zambezi River and 
then across to Northern Rhodesia, There they 
managed to sell the cattle, after which they 
returned to Ghansi. Some time later Scotty 
bade farewell to the settlement aiid trekked 
south, but the two Australians decided to 
remain behind. They marxied Ghansi girls and 
eventually became very wealthy men. 

Back again in the South Kalaliaii, Scotty 
picked up the threads of his normal life and 



reverted to his cattle -raiding, smuggling and 
horse-stealing activities. Once, for example, he 
wanted to run a cargo of brandy across the 
frontier into South West Africa, where he 
knew that it would have a ready sale among 
the Hottentots. He chose the border neai^ 
Rietfontein for this puipose. But the C^e 
police were suspicious and he received the tip 
that they were waiting for him to make a false 
move. 

Scotty was wondering how to evade them 
when one of his Hottentot spies reported that 
another bootlegger intended taking a consign- 
ment of liquor over the frontier some miles to 
the north. The o!d outlaw was aimoyed as he 
considered that this man was poaching on his 
preserves. And so he decided to kill two birds 
with one stone to transship his cargo safely 
across the border and at the same time to teach 
his rival a lesson. 

He therefore went to see the, Rietfontein 
magistrate. Major Herbst, whom he knew well. 
Quite casually, in the course of conversation, he 



passed on the infortnation he had received about 
his rival. Major Herbst, who had been waiting 
for a long time to catch these brandy runners, fell 
into the trap. He sent all the available police to 
intercept the smuggler at the spot indicated, 
leaving the frontier near Rietfontein open for 
Scotty to get his cargo safely across. In after 
years the Major^ who had a keen sense of 
humour, bore Scotty no gmdge but used to take a 
delight in telling his friends how the old rogue 
had deceived him. 

In 1909 Scotty Smith abandoned his home- 
stead at Leitland's Pan and within a few years it 
had gone back to the desert. The sand had 
claimed its' own and there was hardly a sign to 
show where the house had stood for so many 
years. 

Scotty now acquired an iirigation erf at 
Upington, on ^^^ich he erected a simple cottage 
overlooking the Orange River. There he resided 
until his death in 1919. On this erf he grew 
vegetables and fruit, cultivated wheat and 
lucerne, and kept his cattle and sheep. During his 



lifetime a good deal of money had passed 
through Scotty's haiids, but he was a prodigal 
spender and made little effort to save any of it. 
Moreover his persistent attempts to make a lucky 
gold or diamond strike also proved unavailing 
and so he spent his last few years in some^iat 
stiaiteued circumstances. 

There was one very peculiar feature about the 
house ^^ich Scotty built for himself in 
Upington. It had only one door and this faced the 
river, not the street. There was an excellent 
reason for this. In his old age Scotty dieaded the 
thought that he might be pestered by journalists, 
writers, and other inquisitive strangers who 
wanted to poke their noses into his past. In 
addition, he had no time for ministers of religion, 
and he was haunted by the fear that they might 
want to visit him in oider to save his soul and 
convert him to anew way oflife. 

By constructing only one door to his house he 
hoped to reduce these possible intrusions to a 
minimum. Mrs Schutz, ^^iio gave me this expla- 
nation for the somewhat unconventional design 



of the building, added that Scotty also kept a 
niiiiiber of dogs to fiighten away unwelcome 

visitors. 

At Upington there was a Roman Catholic 
Mission Station, mil by the Society of St Francis 
de Sales, ^^ich did excellent work among the 
Hottentot^", Basters and other Coloured race^' in 
the area. Closely associated with this institution 
were two people, whom I have previously 
mentioned, the priest in charge and Mrs Schutz. 
Mrs Schutz, before her mairiage, was the teacher 
at the mission school. The priest in charge was 
by birth a Frenchman. He was a man of good 
family, well educated, well read, and with wide 
human sympathies. 

Scotty was not a church-goer aiid there was 
only one notable exception to his almost 
pathological distrust of parsons. This w^ the 
priest, who had the entree to Scotty's house at 
any time. 

It was a strange fiiendship which had 
developed between the man of God and the 



incDTiigible old sinner. But they had the most 

sincere liking and re&'pect for one another, and 
although they were so dissimilar in many ways 
they had one thing in common. They were both 
great lovers of horses. 

Oflen this incongruous pair would spend 

hours together discussing their mutual interest in 
horse-ilesh, and then the priest would give the 
outlaw a glimpse into his early life and career: 
And Scotty, in turn, would confide to the 
minister some of his more exciting and pictures- 
que experiences. 

Scotty Smith spent the last yeai^s of his life in 
retirement on his erf at Upington, but the 
outlaw's idea of retiiement and that of most other 
people must have differed considerably. He still 
had sufficient reserves of energy, for example, to 
take an extremely active part in yet another war 
and to act as a guide to various desert expedi- 
tions. In away Scotty was lucky, because these 
activities kept him out of a good deal of 
mischief, against which even his advancing years 
would probably have proved no safeguard. 



In 1910, shortly af^er he had settled at 
Upington, Kalahari Bu^limaii skeletons suddenly 
achieved tremendous scientiTic importance. 
There was an unprecedented demand for their 
acquisition on the part of museums and similar 
institutions throughout the world, and Scotty 
found himself in the position of being the ideal 
man to meet the demand. In fact he gained 
practically a monopoly of this strange, bizarre 
trade. 

The outlaw was not, of course, the first mail 
in South-Africa to search for Bushmen relics. 
For many years sporadic attempts had been made 
to acquire good specimens of these primitive 
people. But it was not until Dr L. Peringuey, the 
Director of the South-African Museum in C^e 
Town, became interested in the matter that a 
proper search was instituted. 

Soon after the close of the Anglo-Boer wai% 
Dr Peringuey wrote to various people throughout 
the country v^om be thought might be able to 
supply him with suitable skeletons, and in this 
way he managed to obtain some of his 



requirements from Plettenberg Bay, Grahams- 
town, Carnarvon, Rietfontein and other parts of 
S outh- Africa- 

Dr Peringuey was an aident scientist and-in 
his enthusiasm to gain as much data as possible 
he missed no opportunity of securing suitable 
skeletons which would help him in his 
researches. He even kept an eye on the reports of 
police court proceedings in the newsp^ers. In 
April, 1910, for example, he noticed that a 
Bushman named Leelyk had been sentenced to 
deatli at the Victoria West Circuit Court Sessions 
for murder. He therefore formally ^plied for 
pennission to acquire his body after the execu- 
tion. But while the vai ious legal implications of 
this ^plication were still under consideration the 
Governor of the Cape made a decision unneces- 
sary by commuting the condemned man's 
sentence to one of life imprisonment. 

At this stage another well-known scientist and 
medical practitioner came to the aid of the 
Director. This was Dr W. M. Borcherds, who 
was in practice at Upington at the time, and 



who spears to have been one of the first people 
to ha\'e realised the vast potentialities^ of the 
Kalahari Desert as a treasnie house of Bushman 
bones. In a letter from Upiugton, dated 2nd 
1910, and addressed to Dr Peringuey, Dr 
Borcherds wrote: 

"Yesterd^ Mr St Leger Geo. Lennox caine 
back from 150 miles beyond Mier's Country, 
i.e. about 350 miles from here. He was in search 
of diamonds but did not find Anderson's 
diamonds described in his book, 2S Year:^ in an 
Ox-Wagon. He has brought down eight 
complete skeletons of Bushmen ... Dr Porch, a 
scientist from Vienna, commissioned Mr 
Lennox to get some more for him, giving him 
£7 10s. each made up as follows: £5 for a 
complete skeleton and £2 10s. for expenses. Dr 
Porch got a lot of specimens from a farm 
Kurego in Gordonia and seven from Mr 
Lennox. The South-African Museum can have 
them at the same price ... Mr Lennox lived at 
Leitland's Pan in this district for some thirty 



years among the Bushmen and knows more 
about them than anyone else.... " 

As a result of this letter Dr Peringuey 
decided to make use of Scotty Smith's services 
to secure specimens for his own institution. But 
first the matter had to be legalised. Scotty was 
therefore advised to apply for a pemiit from the 
magistrate at Upington, authorising him to 
exhume Bushman skeletons for the South- 
African Museum. He did this and then, without 
much difficulty, managed to fmd five Khoma 
Bushman skeletons which he sent off to Dr 
Peringuey. 

It was on this occasion that he came across 
the grave of the famous chief, Marengo, ^^o 
had played such a prominent pait in the Herero 
struggle for independence against the Germans. 
Marengo was not of course a Bushman. He was 
a tme Hereio, but his skeleton was of great 
historical interest and Scotty intended, ^par- 
ently, to add it to his collection. Unfortunately 
for him, however^ he had been forestalled. The 
grave had already been violated and the heads 



of both Marengo and his wife had been 
removed by some unknown person. 

It is a popular belief that Scotty made a very 
good thing out of thi^" rather sinister business 
while it lasted. But this is not conect, and on 
some trips he found it difficult to recover his 
expenses. For his five Khoma skeletons, for 
example, he received only £17 10s, a sum 
which hardly met his costs, and certainly did 
not recompense him for the trouble ^^ich he 
had taken to preserve them. 

''I was twent}' clays away." he wrote to Dr 
Peringuey, ''collecting them with wagon, three 
boys and one horse. The sand is sifl:ed and gone 
over for the smallest bones. They are as 
complete as skeletons can be got. The bones aie 
fumigated, then immersed in a solution of 
creolin and sun dried. 70s. each does not cover 
the expense incurred getting them ..." 

In spite of these poor payments, Scotty 
continued with the work and soon he had no 
lack of clients. As the news spread that 



Bushman skeletons were readily available in the 

Kalahari, other museums and scientific 
institutions became eager to secure suitable 
specimens. He is known to have supplied 
skeletons to the Kimberley and Albany 
museums as well as to swch fainors overseas 
institutions as the Berlin Museum. With the 
increased demand the price, too, rose slightly. 

As I have mentioned before, the fact that 
Scotty ^peaied to have no difficulty in 

executing these orders soon set people's tongues 
wagging. The populai' and most widely believed 
explanation of Scotty's business was that he 
simply shot the required number of Bushmen 
whenever he needed their skeletons. 

But Scotty had a different and much more 
plausible explanation of how he obtained his 
^parently unlimited supplies. He pointed out 
that at one time the Cape police, anxious to 
make his closer acquaintance, had often 
employed Bushmen trackers to follow his trail. 
Knowing that this was h^pening, and realising 
that unless he rid himself of these human 



bloodhounds his fate would be sealed, he would 

lie ill wait aiid pick them off as they appeared on 
his trail. This in itself was anotable achievement, 
because the suspicious little men of the desert 
were the most difficult of all human beings to 
aiiibush. Scotty buried the Bushmen in convenient 
sand dunes and, according to him, it was these 
skeletons ^^ich he was exhuming. 

Some of Scotty's acquaintances, however, held 
other views. They believed that his friend^^ among 
tlie little yellow people had shown him their 
secret cemeteries and tliat, when the need aldose, 
he simply raided these. Unfortunately for this 
belief, however, the Bushmen did not have 
common burial grounds but simply interred their 
people wherever they died. 

On one scientific trip to the Kalahari, 
sponsored by the Cape Government, Scotty was 
appointed guide aiid transport rider Tliis 
expedition was not primarily concerned with 
Bushmen relics but its members could not help 
noticing that, on three different evenings after 
making camp, Scotty rode off on his pony and 



dis^peared into the desert. He would return 
much later with a bulging sack, which he packed 
into one of the wagons. His companions were 
naturally curious to know v\diat was in the bags, 
but Scotty resolutely refused to s^ anything 
about them. 

At last one night, wlien they were sitting round 
the camp fire, he suddenly decided to satisfy their 
curiosity. 

"If you really want to know ^^at's in those 
sacks," he remarked, "141 show you. Come with 
me." 

He led them to the wagon, took ofT a sack and 

opened it. It was flill of bones. 

''I heard recently in Kimberley," he casually 
explained, "that the Cape Museum was offering 
£5 for a Bushman skull and £15 for a complete 
skeleton. IVe got three lots in there." 

Colonel Trew also tells the story of how a 
fi^iend of his once spent three months in the 
Kalahari with Scotty doing intelligence work. One 
evening, as they were preparing to camp, Scotty 



asked if he could take the ws^on a little wKy oS 

the track as he had shot three Bushmen some 
years before in that neighbourhood and had 
buried their bodies in a sand dune. He now 
wanted to recover them because he had seen in a 
newspf^er that the Grahamstown Museum was 
offermg £5 10s. for specimens. He then went off, 
dug up the skeletons and put them in a box 
which he intended sending off as soon as they 
got back to civilisation. 

Scotty's trade continued unabated for about 
two years. Then the C^e Provincial Govern- 
ment decided to call a halt to it, before the 
Kalahaii was completely denuded of Bushmen 
bones. And so in July 1912, the Provincial 
Secretaiy got in touch with Dr Peringuey. 

"The Resident Magistrates of Upington, 
Griquatown and Kuruman," he wrote, "have 
been advised of the withdi'awal of 'Scottie' 
Smith's permit to exhume Bushman 
skeletons in the Kalahari, and have been asked to 
assist you in getting the permit cancelled" 



This edict brought the business to a sudden 
end, and Scotty lost a steady, if somewhat poorly 
paid, source of remuneration. By this time, 
however, he had achieved such a reputation as a 
guide that he had no diOiculty in supplementing 
his meagre income in other ways. In fact during 
the next ten years his services were eagerly 
requisitioned by a variety of people ^^o, for one 
reason or another, wished to make a journey into 
the Kalahari. 

Chapter Se VEPn:EEN 

Kalahari Guide 

Scotty s career as a Kalahari guide brought 
him into contact with many interesting 
personalities. Ferh^s his most unusual 
customers were Miss Dorothea Bleek vvho, with 
her father Dr W. H. I. Bleek, was a world 
authority on the Bushman language and culture, 
and Miss Maria Wilman, the Director of the 
Kimberley Museum. The Bleek- Wilman 
expedition set out from Upington, with Scotty 
as its guide, towaids the end of 1910, and it 



spent some weeks in the desert, studying the 
little yellow men and their mode of life. 

It was a peculiar combination, the two 
dedicated women scientists and the old 
reprobate who had featured in so many dubious 
screes and esc^ades. Although the trip was a 
trying one Scotty behaved in aii exemplary 
manner and took the two ladies exactly where 
they wanted to go. But over half a century later 
I heard a most interesting sidelight on the 
expedition, wliich ju^'t goes to show the unusual 
problems that can arise - even in the desert - 
when two women of strong personality are 
travelling together. 

One day when Scotty was lying on his 
deathbed, Mrs Schutz went to see him. After a 
while their talk turned to the supposed lost city 
of the Kalahari, a topic in which they were both 
extremely interested. More to cheer him up than 
for any other reason, Mrs Schutz remarked, 
"Look, Scotty, next time you make a trip into 
the Kalahari you must take me along." 



He chuckled. "Ah," he said. "Ladies. Yes, I 
once took two of them with me and I won't 
forget that journey in a hurry. They were both 
very determined ladies, and I had quite a job 
with them. Tlie one asked for early morning tea, 
and the other insisted on coffee. One day the 
cook boy came to me and objected because of 
the extra work involved. I didnt mind about that, 
but it was summer time and we had to be very 
careful of our water supply as there was no 
means of replenishing our vats once they were 
empty: 

"I always carried a quantity of salt with me on 

these expeditions, in case I shot any animals and 
wanted to preseive their' skins, so now I gave the 
boy certain instnictions : 'Tomorrow, make both 
tea and coffee as usual and then put a large 
spoon of salt in the tea. But if you let out that 
I told you to do this I'll skin you alive. Why did I 
salt the tea?" Scotty gave a sly grin. "Well, 
you see, I prefer coffee myself." 

"And ^^at h^pened then?" Mrs Schutz asked 
him. 



He pulled a wry face. "There were ructions 

the next morning." he admitted, "and the poor 
cook boy got it hot from one of the ladies. For 
the life of me I cant remember now^^ich one it 
was. However, I made some remark about the 
effect of the sun on the water and the tea. 'The 
scientific lady couldn't quite understand why it 
should only afiTect the tea and not the coffee. But 
it solved our problem. After that we had no 
morning tea. We only had coifee and peace." 

In 1913 Major C. A. Anderson, who is now 
living at Maiandellas in Southern Rhodesia, 
spent two and a half months travelling with 
Scotty in the Kalaliai'i Desert. He confirmed that 
Scotty was extremely reticent by nature and 
bitterly resented being questioned about his past 
life. As their friendship ripened, however, his 
reserve thawed and sometimes, over the caiiip 
fnes at night, he would tell the most thrilling 
stories about an exciting and varied career. 

Major Anderson is an authority on the under- 
ground water resources of South-Africa. At one 
time he was an inspector in the Water Boring 



Branch of the Union Government and it was in 

this connection that he was first brought into 
contact with Scotty. 

In his official capacity. Major Anderson 
pioneered the discovery and development of 
underground water supplies in many parts of the 
country. In 1913 he wa,^ sent by the Government 
to the Kalahari with instructions to select 
suitable sites for boreholes so that those arid 
areas could be opened up for settlers. 

The Upington magistrate was asked to 

provide a guide aiid he strongly recommended 
Scotty. The latter was therefore engaged and was 
commissioned to supply a travelling wagon^ six 
oxen and two riding horses for the trip. With 
these he was to meet Major Anderson at 
Upington on a given date. 

These preliminary matters having been 
settled, the Major proceeded by train to the 
railhead at Prieska and from there by post cait to 
Upington. Scotty was waiting at the hotel for 
him with the riding horses. They lunched 



together and after a few drinks to cement their 
new partnership they rode down to the house, 
where Scotty showed him round his erf, and the 
small land of ^leat which he irrigated from the 
Orange River. Major Anderson was then 
iittrodiTced to his wife, and they had coffee in the 
front room. 

After a \^ile Scotty left to fetch the wagon 
for M^or Anderson's inspection, vs^ile his wife 
retiied to the kitchen to bake rusks for the 
Kalaliaii trip. And then an incident occurred 
which led to Scotty's giving Major Anderson a 
description of his early life and career. Hiis, 
^^ile it throws new light on the subject, differs 
in some veiy material respects from the account 
that he subsequently related to other fiieuds, and 
^^ich I have reproduced in Chs^ter One of this 
book. 

Lying on a table in the front room was a lai'ge, 
old fashioned photograph album. Left to himself 
and with nothing much to do, Major Anderson 
picked it up and began paging idly through it. 



Ahnost at once his interest was aroused by what 
he saw. 

"As a result, when Scotty returned/' Major 
Anderson infomied me, "I was gazing at the 
photo of a very handsome woman mounted, 
side saddle, on a magnificent horse, and in the 

background was a castle with the abutments 
and other architecture typical of Scotland. 

"Scotty &"aid, 'Are you having a look at the 
old family pictures?' 

"I replied, 'What a fme horse and isn't this 
an old Scottish castle?' 

'"Yes, that was my home' he answered. 'I 
tiained that horse for my sister. Her husband 
was the Ambassador to Russia. But come and 
have a look at the wagon.' 

"I had heai'd that Scotty had a title. The 
photogr^h and what he actually told me later 
on oue night over a camp fire when he was in a 
chatty mood, seemed to corroborate this. He 
informed me then that he had trained as a vet 
in Edinburgh. After qualifying he had joined a 



cavalry regiment as a veterinary officer. This 
regiment was sent out to South-Africa during 

one of the Kafir wars. 

"Before the ship airived at Cape Town all 
the horses were brought on to the upper deck 
for re-shoemg. The weather was very rough 
and the smiths had a lot of trouble with some 
of the animals. This was particularly so with 
the colonel's charger. Scotty was a past master 
at handling horses, and af^er one of the smiths 
had been badly kicked he took over. He first 
quietened the animal and then shod it himself. 
His nickname in the regiment after this 
exhibition of skill became 'Scotty the Smith'. 
He told me that that was why he adopted the 
name of Scotty Smith instead of using his real 
name of George St Leger Gordon Lennox in 
his subsequent career as an outlaw. 

"He also explained that he had resigned his 
commission in the cavalry regiment and had 
made his way to Kimberley sfier the first rush. 
He pegged a claim but it was un-payable. It 
was at this time that he received a letter from 



his family lawyers to say that his father had 
died and that he must return immediately as the 
estate was deeply involved by the failure of the 
City of Glasgow Bank, in ^lich his father had 
been a large shareholder. This was before the 
days of limited liabihty companies, aiid the 
claims against the estate were so heavy that 
nothing was lefl. He then returned to Kimberley 
and got mixed up in the LD .B. business. Whether 
he was actually the legal heir to an e&'tate and a 
title is open to doubt. I have reason to believe, 
however, that Scotty was recognised as being a 
member of the Gordon Lennox family. Some 
years ago while lunching with a regular army 
colonel I mentioned having shot an Oryx ^^en 
travelling in the Kalahari with an old outlaw 
named Scotty Smith. 

"The colonel replied. That's interesting, I'll 
tell you a story about him. Jn the early days of 
the Rand my brother-in-law was proceeding 

from Kimberley to Johannesburg by stage coach. 
They stopped for the night at a wayside hotel in 
the Free State. The hotel keeper told my brother- 



in-law that he would have to share a room with a 

man called Scotty Smith who had a veiy bad 
record and he advised him to place all his money 
and valuables under his pillow. He did this and 
went to sleep. 

"About midnight he was awakened by 

Scotty's enteiins the room and lighting the 
candle. My brother-in-law jumped up as the 
flame shone on the newcomer's face. He was 
certain that he had seen him before. The two men 
gaped at each other for a minute, and theu 
discovered they were cousins. Their last meeting 
had taken place many years before.' 

"This tale, in conjunction with the photos I 
personally saw in the old album, proved that 
Scotty was certainly a recognised member of his 
family. I may also add that in spite of his 
transgressions against the law he was not a 
criminal in the ordinaiy sens'e of the word. And 
the hotel keeper's advice to the colonel's brother- 
in-law to place his money and valuables under 
his pillow was quite uncalled for." 



AO:er Scotty had returned to his house with 

the wagon and oxen, which Major Anderson 
duly inspected and found satisfactory, they 
agreed to begin their journey early on the 
following morning. Tlie M^or had a good deal 
to do in the meEuitime. He had to see the 
Upington magistrate ^out a number of details 
connected with the trip and he also had to 1^ in 
an adequate stock of goods and provisions, 
enough to last for the two or three months which 
he anticipated they would be in the desert. 

On Scotty's advice he purchased, among other 
things, a bag of salt, and a plentifiil supply of 
sugar, coffee and twist tobacco. Tlie two men 
intended doing a good deal of shooting for the 
pot and the salt was essential for making biltong. 
The tobacco would come in useful for bartering 
for wild animal skins and kaiossei^ from the 
Coloured hunters belonging to the settlement at 
Rietfontein. 

These stores were delivered to the hotel and 
the next day M^or Anderson rose early. Tlie 
expedition, however, was fated to have an 



unpropitious start. Scotty failed to turn up! At 
fii^^ the Major thought that he had been delved. 
But when time passed aud neither he nor the 
wagon materialised, Major Anderson began 
making enquiries, and it was not long before his 
eyes were opened to the tme i^tate of affairs. It 
was the hotel barman who enlightened him, and 
at die same time gave him quite a shock. 

"You see, sir," he explained, "\rfien Scotty 
goes on a trip like this he always makes a few 
private an'angem ents of his own. Yesterday he 

bought a case of brandy." 

The barman, who knew his Scotty better than 
M^or Anderson did at that stage. Shook his head 
sadly. "It's very unlikely, sir," he solemnly 
assured him, ''that youll see him again before 
he's finished the case, and that'll probably take 
him several d^s. Tliere's nodiing you can do 
about it." 

Major Anderson, however, did not agree. He 
had made up his mind to begin the expedition 
that day and he was deteimined not to allow a 



little tiling like this to stop him. He therefore 

mounted his horse and rode down to Scotty's 
house to find out exactly what had h^pened. He 
knocked on the' door and Mrs Smith opened it. 
But let me continue the story in M^or 

Anderson's own Avoids: "I asked her where her 
husband was. and she replied. 'He's vejy sick.' 

"My answer was, "You mean he's veiy dnmk,' 
and I pointed over her shoulder. 

"She turned round and saw that the door 
between the bedroom and die &ont room was 
wide open. I could see Scotty stretched out on 
his bed in a drunken slumber, with a bottle of 
brandy and a glass on a table alongside his 
couch. I then asked her to call the Coloured 
driver, which she did. I told him to bring the 
Wagon round to the hotel about 4 p.m. to load 
the stores, and that we would tlien return and 
pick up Scotty. The driver laughed, and said that 
as soon as we got on to the veld. The old master 
will revive.' 



Tliis stRtcment I found to be perfectly true, 

Eveiytliine went according to plan. Diiriug the 
niglit I rode ahead of the wagon, leading Scotty's 
horse. About dayhght, some twenty miles from 
Upington, we arrived at the Tirst outspan. A Tire 
Avas made ant! eaily coffee brewed. While I was 
soaking a rusk in my coffee and eating it, I hear d 
a movement in tbe tented wagon. When I looked 
in, Scott>^ was awake and sitting »p. He liien 
climbed out, glanced round the landscape, and 
said, This is Areachap. I don't recall getting on 
the wagon to come here.' 

"To this I replied, 'Quite so. You were lifted 
on to it wdien dead drunk.' 

"'Damn it,' he rejoined. 'Now I remember 
climbing into that brandy. This is the worst jag 
I've been on for years. I must ^ologise. The 
craving only gets me occasionally and never 
^^en I am out on the veld.' 

"This I also discovered was an actual fact. I 
had a case of wliisky in the wagon. I had 
purchased it in Upington primaiiiy to make a hot 



drink at night before going to bed, as I knew the 

temperature in the Kalahaii in winter fell 
abruptly to freezing point after sundown. On 
Scott's advice I had also bought a good supply 
of cocoa before leaving Upington as he had told 

me it went well with tsaiiima juice and was an 
ideal wanning drink on cold nights. 

"Tsamma, as you may know, is a wild species 
of melon that grows on tbe dunes in tbe Kalahari. 
To extract the juice it is cut into slices, placed in 
a pot and boiled. The hot juice is then strained 
and this liquid is used in place of :&esli water. 
There are two varieties, one sweet and the other 
intensely bitter. Both look veiy much alike and 
it is only the Bushmen who can distinguish them 
at a glance. Scotty told me that the bitter variety 
remains green longer tban the sweet kind, and 
that great care has to be taken, when the tsamnia 
ripens in August, to make certain that there are 
sufficient sweet melons left to yield a palatable 
drink, 

"The tsamma is indispensable to the Kalahari 
Bushmen, and is his chief insurance against 



dying of thirst. When tlie rains come at the 
proper tnne, that i&" diiriQg the December- 
Februaiy season, there is always a plentiful 
supply of tsamma later in the year. Hie Bushmen 
pick the melons and bury them in deep pits, dug 
in the sand, to keep them from ripening and 
rotting. In this way they ensure a good supply of 
the life-saving tsamma for use in time of 
droughts. 

"During the two and a half months' tiip our 
night cap always con&'isted of cocoa and tsamma 
juice. The whisky was handed over to the 
operators of two water boring machines, wdiich 
started work in the Kalahari on the sites I 
selected along the course of the dry beds of the 
Anob and Nossob Riveis. 

"After we had continued our journey from 
Areachap, Scotty and I usually jogged ahead of 
the wagon on our horses. Eventually we came to 
a stretch of the road \\iiere it took some sharp 
turns among some koppies. As we rounded one 
of these bends we suddenly came face to face 
with the police camel patrol on its w^ to 



Upington &om Rietfontein to deliver and collect 
the post. 

Scotty immediately yelled, "Hang on!' 

"Instinctively I dug my knees into the saddle 
as my horse reared up, turned completely round, 
and made off at full gallop. When I managed to 
pull him up I saw Scotty had guided his horse 
on to high ground well above the road, some 
distance from the camels. I also saw that the 
corporal in charge had dismounted and was 
walking to where Scotty was standing. When I 
joined them they both informed me that horses, 
unaccustomed to the strong scent peculiar to 
camels, alw^s took fright when they first smelt 
it, but soon got used to it. 

"Shortly aftei"waids the road led through a 
defile flanked by high walls of rock. Scotty 
pointed out that this had been tlie course of the 
Molopo River when it had been a perennial 
stream flowing into the Orange River, before 
climatic changes had produced desert 
conditions. 



"After passing through the defile we 

followed the saiidy bed of the Molopo on our 
way northwards. The first note-woithy sight 
which Scotty pointed out was a large deposit of 
garnets and similar stones associated with 

diamonds. He had spent much time sieving this 
deposit but had never discovered anything of 
value. He was convinced, however, that 
diamond pipes exist under the Kalahaii sands, 
and from the geological point of view his 
sumiise may well be correct. 

"The next interesting feature he showed me 
was the remains of the house he had built w^en 
he had lived in the desert. It had been 
constnicted on a laige shelf of limestone 
overlooking the broad bed of sand forming the 
Molopo River at this point. Before he built the 
house Scotty had sunk a well through the thick 
layer of sand on to rock but had failed to strike 
water. A year or so afl:erwards the Kuruman 
River, which joins the Molopo, came down in 
flood and damned into a large lake at this point. 



Such a thing had never been seen before in the 
memory of the oldest Bushman. 

"Scotty had a theory, which I think is logical, 
that the Kalahari climate is gradually changing 
into wetter conditions. This is shown by the 
sand dunes having a covering of vegetation, 
^^ich prevents them &om moving. 

"After leaving the site of Scotty's old 
residence our next outspan was at the junction of 
the Molopo and Kuruman Rivers, at a place 
called Witdraai. Late in the afternoon a wagon 
from Kuruman drew up some little distance from 
^^iiere we were camped. Scotty had a look at it 
and said to me, 'I believe that is an old friend of 
mine I havent seen for twenty years.' 

"He then stiolled over to the wagon and 
siioitly afteiwaids returned with the stranger, 
whose name was Howard. Scotty announced that 
he had invited him to dinner and suggested that, 
to celebrate the occasion, I might open abottle of 
wliisky. We all had a drink and Scotty and his 
friend staited talking. It ^peaied that they had 



been half-sections in the fighting v^ich had 

taken place when some of the Transvaal 
butchers had decided to fonn the two new 
repubhcs of Stellaland and Goshen. 

"From what I gathered horn the conversation 
between Scotty and his fiiend their headquarters 
had been with some of the local chiefs whose 
territoiy the burghers had annexed, along with a 
number of their cattle. Scotty and his pals, on the 
other hand, carried on armed raids against the 
biii'ghers with the object of capturing as many 
cattle as possible, which they drove down to 
Kimbcrley and sold at lucrative prices. 

"During dinner the conversation turned to a 
more recent incident in which Howai d had been 
involved. Scotty opened the discussion by 
remarking, "We are both getting old, Howaid, but 
you are failing quicker than I am. Hiat was a 
most disgraceful episode allowing yourself to be 
c^tured by the square-heads in their territory 
with a wagonload of rifles and ammunition for 
the Hereros.' 



"Howard thumped the dining table and said. 
It certainly was disgraceful. I was camped in 
British territory, and had sent out a messenger to 
the Herero chief telling him where I was and the 
number of cattle I wanted in exchange for the 
rifles.' 

''Howard also added that he was still quite 
enable of fixing his position accurately by using 
his sextant. Scotty then mentioned some 
landmarks in the area ^^ere the seizure had 
taken place. Tliese were discussed in detail and 
Scotty asked me to bring my m^. When I 
opened this he placed his flnger on a spot in 
German territory and said, 'Howard, you were 
there.' 

'The latter looked at the mop and remaiked, 
'Yes, but that map's wrong. The proper boundary 
runs on that line of longitude right up to the 
C^rivi Strip.' 

Scotty then told him that some years 
previous !y it had be en agre e d to m ove the 
boundaiy fuither east from a certain point as 



shown on my chart. When he heard this Howard 

had to adin it th at he had b e en c apture d in 
Gennau territory, and that he had therefore no 
hope of gettmg any compensation for the 
confiscated rifles and ammunition. After Howard 
had returned to his own camp Scotty informed 
me that when he first knew him he was their 
prize marksman with a Snider rifle. 

"While we were encamped at Witdraai I 
visited the Csq^e police po^ to fmd out if there 

was a beacon on the border of Gennan teiritory 
w4iere the Auob River entered it. The police told 
me that they did not know, as the last habitation 
was on a suiveyed faim at the junction of the 
Auob and Nossoh Rivers. Scotty knew this spot 
and also the Afrikaner family who lived there. 
When we arrived at the place I was shown the 
approximate position, where the boundary of the 
farm crossed the bed of the Auob River. From 
this point I took prismatic compass readings at 
paced-out intervals along the dry bed and had the 
satisfaction of finding the beacon erected by the 
Gennan Survey within half a mile of where my 



rough calculations and measurements showed it 
should have been. 

"Tlie grazing and tsamma were plentiful, in 
the vicinity, and the game was abundant, so we 
decided to rest the oxen, do some shooting, and 
make a supply of biltong. On our second 
morning in this delightful neighbourhood Scotty 
suddenly saw two camel ridei^ ^proaching. He 
immediately yelled to our ox-driver, 'Run and 
tell them to stop. On no account must they bring 
their camels within scent of our horses.' 

"The driver did this and the riders dismounted 
some distance from where we were camped. One 
of them, a Cape police trooper, then came over 
to see us. He told iis that the man with him had 
crossed the Gennan border at Rietfontein in a 
hurry after dark, a few nights before. His 
sergeant, however, did not want him to be found 
there, in case the Gemians came after him. He 
had therefore ordered him to take the fugitive to 
the Witdraai police post. 



" ^IVe also been instructed/ he continued, 'to 

find out where die watei-bormg plants are 
working to see if we cant get him a job with 
them.'" 

"While the trooper was teUing me this Scotty 
had been looking at the man, still standing beside 

the camels some distance away, through a pair of 
iield glasses I used for spotting game. And when 
the policeman had fmished speaking Scotty 
turned to him and said, 'What did he slip over the 
bolder for? Was it for pinching that pair of 
Gemian anny top boots he's wealing?' 

"The trooper laughed and replied, 'No. I think 
it's a case ofl.D.B.' " 

"Scotty thereupon remarked to me, 'If he's got 
away with a good packet of stones belonging to 
the squaie-heads he deserves the most 

sympathetic consideration/ 

"We then told the policeman to bring the 
camels to our camp, as our horses had been sent 
away to graze in charge of our wagon driver. On 



their arrival the fiigitive handed me a note from 
one of the drill foremen. 

"Before opening it I said to him, "YouVe 
crossed over from Genu an territoiy, I 
understand. Allow me to introduce you to Mr 
Smidi. You and he no doubt will find much of 
mutual interest to talk about as he has tiavelled 
extensively where you come from, is acquainted 
with its inhabitants, and knows a lot about its 
diamonds.' 

"Scotty gave a cough, and asked the fiigitive a 

number of questions about various paits of the 
country where he said he had been prospecting. 
Hiis embraced the area on the north bank of the 
Orange River from its mouth to Warmbad in 
German teiritoiy. When I listened to this conver- 
sation little did 1 realise that I should hear, about 
ayear later (in September 1914) that the fugitive 
was acting as a scout for the Union troops in the 
very country he was now describing. The man, I 
may add, was given a job in charge of a steam 
pump supplying the drilling machines with water 
from the boreholes the drillers were sinking. 



"On our return journey, we cut across from 
the Auob River through the dunes, on a track 
Scotty knew, to the Nossob River. While on this 
trip I shot a gemsbok bull in excellent condition. 
Scotty immediately got busy slicing ofT strips of 
meat for making into biltong. He ako put aside a 
plentiful supply for the immediate use of 
ourselves and our boys. Afler he had finished, 
there was still a large quantity over. 

"We'd just had our supper when a Bushman 
^peaied and spoke to the wagon driver in a 
series of clicks. Scotty listened, and then turning 
to me remarked. He says he's hungry.' 

"He instructed the driver to tell the Bushman 
to help himself from the pile of meat neai' the 
camp fire. The latter eagerly obeyed. He erabbed 
several large chunks, scraped out some hot 
embers, placed the meat on them for a few 
minutes, and then wolfed the lot, although it was 
still half raw. When he had fmished Scotty said 
to the driver. Tell him to have some more if he 
wants to.' 



"Hie Bushman then proceeded to polish off a 

second huge quantity of meat. Scotty turned to 
me and asked, "Would you like to see him really 
fill his stomach?' 

'T replied. 'It's prettj' full now, isn't it?' 

''Scotty answered, 'I think he can hold a bit 
more.' 

"With that he told the driver to ask the 
Bushman if he would like some 'sadza'. Tliis 
was a veiy stodgy mealie-meal poiridge and 
there was a large three-iegged pot of it standing 
on one side. Hie Bushman immediately gu^ed 
down a few pounds of the stuflF. By this time his 
stomach was visibly distended. 

"He then got up irom ^^ere he had been 
squatting, wr^ped the skin he used as a blanket 
round his shoulders, and curled up under a bush 
to sleep. When I remarked to Scotty that he had 
apparently swallowed this huge meal without 
chewing it, he laughed. 

" ^In order to survive,' he explained, 'these 
primitive people have to take in enormous 



quantities of food at one sitting, andtlien slowly 
digest it over a period of time. When they hit a 
buck with a poisoned airow it often runs for 
miles before it dies. This means that the hunter 
and his family frequently have to follow the 
tiack of a wounded animal for long distances 
before they can e^ it. When game is plentiful the 
women, in particular, collect reserves of food on 
their buttocks. From this they can draw 
nourishment in times of scarcity/ 

"The fol!owmg morning at sunrise the 
Bushman came and thanked us for the hearty 
meal he had eaten die night before. When asked 
if he wanted breakfast he said 'No,' but he would 
like to take some meat with him. Scotty then told 
the diiver to ask him where he had come from. 
He pointed to the north in die direction we were 
going. He said tsamma.was very scarce and there 
was no game a short distance aliead of otir camp. 

"Scotty was veiy keen on reaching an area 
known as Seven Pans. A few years before a 
Bushman had shown him some garnets which he 
said he had found there. Unfortunately, owing to 



lack of tsamma, we were unable to travel to this 
place. 

"We re£^^ned our journey, and came to a 
stietch of couiitiy where the melons ceased to be 
plentiful. We decided to leave the wagon there 
and to continue on horseback to Kromdraai on 
the Nossob River. But when we got there we 
found, as the Bushman had warned us, that the 
tsammawas practically non-existent." 

M^or Anderson goes on to relate an incident 
^^ich shows diat even Scotty Smidi with his 

wide and comprehensive knowledge of the 
desert was not infallible and could sometimes 
make a mistake. 

"On the outward journey I had noticed a 
dead tree, smothered under a large bird nest 
composed of piles of diy grass, standing on the 
top of a high sand dune. It was some distance 
on our left and I had mentally recorded the fact 
that it made an excellent landmark. Instead of 
riding back to the wagon the way we had 
come, Scotty suggested taking a detour 



through the dunes to make certain that there 

was no more tsamma. Our search, however, 
proved fruitless and after some time we 
decided to give it up and return to the wagon. 

"Scotty took the lead, but my horse kept 
pulling to the lefl, and I had a premonition that 
we were bearing too much to the light. I 
mentioned this to Scotty but he was certain 
that he was on the direct line. As we topped a 
high ridge of dunes near sunset I noticed the 
tree I'd seen in the morning. Tt was some 
distance away, and to the left of the route we 
were taking. Scotty was ahead of me and so I 
shouted and pointed to my landmark. He 
looked round, saw the tree, and immediately 
admitted his mistake. 'You're right,' he called 
back; "we're off the line.' 

"The sun was setting by this time and it 
would obviously be dark before we reached the 
wagon. Fortunately my horse could instinct- 
ively find his way home in the daik to the 
place where he knew he would be fed. We 
therefore left it to him and he took us safely 



back to camp. During supper I remarked, 'I 
wouder if that Bushman is still travelling on 
the feed we gave him.' 

" 'Most probably,' Scotty answered, 'and he 
may be sixty or seventy miles from here. It is 
really incredible the long distances they and 
their families caii traverse without becoming 
unduly fatigued.' 

"Scotty also told me about some of his 
hunting experiences and in this w^ gave me a 
good insight into the lore of the veld, which he 
had acquired. 'When for example,' he 
explained, 'a herd of gemsbok are grazing, a 
bull always remains down wind as a sentry. He 
invariably takes up his stance on a high sand 
dune from which he can observe the 
neighbouring countryside and although he is as 
big as a mule his colour blends so well with 
the dune grass that he is practically invisible. 
In fact the only way you can see him is when 
he moves his head and the light glints off his 
long horns. But if you can manage to pass him 
unobserved, it's possible to get quite close to 



the grazing herd. They rely so much on their 
guardian that they are quite unsuspicious of 
any danger.' 

"On one occasion Scotty and a Bushman 
were out hunting. They passed the sentinel bull 
safely and were on the point of crawling to the 
top of a ridge, from which vantage point they 
expected to be able to see the herd grazing 
below them AA^ien suddenly the Bushman 
noticed a newly bom gemsbok calf. He picked 
it up in his aims and it let out a shrill bleat. 
The next moment an enraged gemsbok cow 
had charged over the top of the dune. The 
Bushman saw her coming and he wasted no 
time. Dropping the calf he disappeared rtq>idly 
down wind. 

"The furious mother stopped, smelt her 
baby and then, catching Scotty's scent, she 
whirled round, lowered her homs and made a 
bee-line for him. Instinctively he jerked up his 
gun and fired. His luck was in. The heavy 
Martini bullet caught the charging animal on 
the forehead and she dropped dead in her 



tracks, the points of her long, sharp horns 
striking the ground within a couple of feet of 
where he was lying. 

" 'Whew!' Scotty remarked, 'hat was one of 
my naiTowest squeak^". ' 

"The old outlaw also had a veiy healthy 
respect for leopards, and warned me never to 
shoot at one, unless I was absolutely certain of 
killing it. 'A leopard/ he pointed out, ^always 
charges if it's wounded, and it does so by 
swerving like lightning &om side to side 
through the grass. It is therefore almost impos- 
sible to get in a second shot before the animal 
is on you. I myself,' he concluded, ^only take a 
chance with one if I have a good pack of 
hunting dogs with me. ' 

"After Scotty aiid T had returned to Upington 
we arranged to visit the aiea around Seven Pans 
the following year. Even if tsamma were 
unobtainable, we believed that we could subsist 
on water from one of the boreholes which I had 
planned. However, it was not to be. The next 



yeai' I was achially on my way to meet Scotty, iu 
fulfilmeut of my promise, when on 4th August 
Great Britain declared war ou Germauy. Instead 
of airiving at Upiiigton. I found myself part of 
the force which landed at Port Nolloth under the 
command of Brigadier General Tim Lukin. Alas! 
Scotty and I were fated never to meet again." 

Another gentleman who spent some time with 
Scotty Smith in the Kalaliai'i and became a fnm 
fiiend of his was Mr R. W. Thornton. Mr 
Thornton is now living in retiiement at Bathurst 
in the Eastern Cape, but when he fust met Scotty 
he was the Principal of the Grootfontein 
Agricultural College. A fewyeai's before, he had 
come into prominence as the leader of the 
famous South-Afiican expedition to the French 
Sahaia in seaich of a paiticulai' breed of 
ostriches/ and subsequently he was to become 
Agricultural Adviser to the High Commissioner 
for Basutolaud, Swaziland and British Bechuana- 
land. 



See Assegai over the Hills by the author 



In 1914 Mr Thornton was eager to join the 
Union forces in the First World War. General 
Botha, however, who valued his seivices highly, 
had an important commission for him to peifbim 
before he would agree to his release from his 
post at Grootfontein. 

The Government was engaged at the time on 
a veiy interesting experiment. In South West 
A&ica there was a certain type of sheep with 
silky hail', known as the Gladdehaai' Afrikander, 
It was hoped that by crossing this with the 
ordinaiy black Kai'akul, it would be possible to 
evolve a high-class grey and white astrakhan fur. 

Mr Thornton was put in chaige of the 
experiment and one of his first tasks was to 
proceed to South West Africa and collect some 
of the Gladdehaai' sheep. Tliese were then to be 
tiansported to Grootfontein where the mating 
would take place. He accordingly set out for 
Upington, the jumping -off place for the 
expedition. Soon after he aiiived there he went 
to see the magistrate m order to obtain a guide to 
the Kalahari. Those were, however, very fi'ee and 



easy d^s in the civil service and although it was 
past nine in the morning vAien he reached the 
office, he found that the magistrate had not 
arrived He waited for some time and then the 
clerk in charge said, "The chief should be here 
by eleven. Come back then." 

A couple of houi'&" later the magisti ate had still 
not put in an ^pearance, and his deputy 
evidently felt that it was impossible to shield him 
any longer He therefore asked Thornton what 
his business was and when he found out he 
proved most cooperative. 

"Look," he remarked, 'T wouldn't bother 
about the chief, if I were you. He's dead drunk 
and not likely to be back at work for a day or 
two. In aiiy case if you're wanting a guide there's 
only one man for you, that's Scotty Smith." 

Thornton, who had already heaid a great deal 
about the one-time outlaw, but had never met 
him, was very keen to make his acquaintance. 

"Do you know ^^ether he's available?" he 
asked the clerk. 



"I should think so," the man replied. "I 

believe he's been out in the deseit with some 
prospectors, but I heard he'd got back this 
morning." 

''Where can I find him?" Thornton enquired. 

"He'll probably be at home with his family. 
You'd better go there and see him." 

Thornton went to Scotty's cott^e and was 

invited inside. He introduced himself, outlined 
his plans, and asked the outlaw whether he 
would act as his guide. All the time he was 
talking Scotty listened intently to v^at he was 
s^ing but never uttered a single word himself. 
Suddenly he turned to his wife. 

"Give me my overcoat and a bottle of 
brandy," he told her. "I'm going on a trip." 

In those few minutes he had sized Thornton 
up, had sqiproved of him, had come to his 
decision, and had disposed of his higgage 
problems. As the latter subsequently discovered, 
Scotty had taken an instant liking to him, a liking 
^^ich was to prove mutual. 



Tliomton had an old Standard car available 
for the journey and he wa,s' more foituuate than 
Major Anderson had been in getting off to an 
early start. Probably, as far as Scotty was 
concerned, it was the difiference between a bottle 
of branc^ and a^iole case. 

The roads were veiy bad and on the first day 
they made only slow progress. That night they 
stopped at Swartm odder, Witbooi's former 
capital. There they were hospitably entertained 
by a fanner named Steyn wlio put Tliomton up 
for the night. Scotty, however, preferred to sleep 
on the ground next to the car. 

While Thornton was talking to his host an 
interesting thing h^pened. One of the farm boys 
arrived and infonned his master that two of the 
donkeys had died of lamsiekte. 

"Have you burnt the bodies?" Steyn asked. 
"Ja, Baas," was the reply, 

Tliomton pricked up his ears because, 

altliotigh he was an expert on animal husbandry, 
he had never heard of this method of preventing 



the disease from spreading. He sent the 
infonnation to Sir Amold Theiler, the Duector of 
the Onderstepoort Veterinary Laboratories, and 
this procedure subsequently became the common 
practice in controlling lamsiekte in South-Afiica. 

Ail:er supper Tliomton thought he had better 

go down to see how his guide was getting on. He 
found the brandy bottle neai ly empty and Scotty 
dead to the world. Taking the car cushions and a 
blanket, he tried to make him comfortable for the 
night. But the latter was annoyed at being 
disturbed. 

''Leave me alone," he moaned. ''Leave me 
alone." In spite of his protests, however, 
Thornton managed to tuck him in and then 
returned to the house. It was certainly not a very 
promising start to the expedition, but just as had 
happened in Major Anderson's case any fears 
^^ich he may have entertained for the success of 
the undertaking were soon dispelled. 

Early on the following moming Thomton 
took a cup of strong black coffee down to the 



CRT, He found Scotty dressed and quite sober, but 
feeling very soiry for himself They staited off 
and the first part of the trip was anything but a 
pleasant one. Scotty was sullen and morose and 
for some hours he never said a word. All of a 
sudden he stooped down and picked up the bottle 
of brandy. He looked at it for a moment. There 
were still a few tots left. Tlien he hurled it 
violently out of the car. It went skidding across 
the veld. 

"HI not have another drink until this trip's 
over, Mr Thornton," he remai^ked earnestly. 'T 
promise you that." And he kept his word. 

On the A^ole the journey was a rough one 
and veiy tiying to anyone not accustomed to 
deseit travelling but it did not &"eem to affect 
Scotty in any way. Their route took them up the 
dry bed of the Molopo River and here the going 
was not too strenuous at first because it had 
rained before they had lefi Upington. As the sand 
dried out, however, it became more and more 
difficult to make any headway. When the wind 
blew, large sand dunes would form in the river 



bed and this seriously impeded their progress. 

Often, too, the cai' would get stuck and in spite of 
their united efforts they would be unable to shiit 
it. Then Scotty would go off on his own into the 
desert to seek help. Invariably, within a short 
time he would retrini with some Basters or 
Hottentots and a few donkeys and with their aid 
they would start moving again. 

Thornton found that Scotty wss not only an 

excellent guide but that he knew exactly where 
to locate the animals for which he was looking. 
As a result they managed to round up about one 
hundred and fifty sheep. These were driven back 
to Upington. On the return trip Tliomton became 
very ill and Scotty looked after him with a care 
and gentleness which one would hai'dly have 
expected to find in such a tough character. For 
some days they were forced to stop, but as soon 
as the patient had sufficiently recovered they 
resumed their journey to Upington. The Miiole 
expedition had taken only fourteen days and 
owing to Scottj''s invaluable assistance it had 
been eminently successful. One thing, however. 



was troubling Thornton and that was how he was 

going to tiaiispoit the sheep to Grootfontein. 
Scotty reassured him on this point. 

"Don*t wony." he remaiked ''Just leave 
everything to me." He was as good as his word 
and within a short time the sheep were safety 
delivered to the college. 

Before returning home, Thornton went to 
Scotty's house to say goodbye to him and to 
reward him for his services. 

"How much do I owe you'^" he asked. 

To his amazement Scotty replied, "There's 
nothing to p^-" 

"Look/' Thornton remonstrated, "I'm not 
footing the bill for this tiip. The Government's 
responsible for all expenses." 

Scotty was, however, in one of his stubboni 
moods. 'T said," he repeated, "there's nothing to 

"But thafs absurd," Tliomton pointed out. 
"I've had two weeks of your time. I must give 



you something." 'Took here, young fellow," 

Scotty repeated. "I said there's nothing to pay 
and there is nothing to pay. Let's go and have a 
drink." 

No aigument or persuasion would make him 
change his mind Hie fact was that the two 
fellow travellers had become great friends and if 
Scotty took a fancy to anyone he would do 
anything in the world for him. 

AHer Hioniton's return to Grootfontein their 
fiiendship did not lapse. They kept up a regular 

coiresp on deuce, and Scotty often proved of great 
assistance to Thornton in certain types of 
research work on ^^ich he was eng^ed. At one 
time, for example, he was experimenting with 
drought-resistant grasses and Scottj' sent him 
various kinds of seed, v^ich he had collected in 
the Kalahari. An interesting discovery ^^ich he 
made in this connection was that if he sowed 
these in well-prepared seed beds they came to 
nothing. When, however, he planted them in the 
earth he^s dug up by ant bears on the veld they 
germinated and grew well. 



Mr Thornton assured me that he intended 

pei'&iiading Scotty to wiite his reminiscences 
when the war was over. But Fate decreed 
otherwise, and they never met again. Shortly 
afler his return &om overseas he received the sad 
news that his friend had died and had been 
buried in Upington. During their close asso- 
ciation together, however, Scotty had told him a 
good deal about his early life and experiences. 
Much of this information is incorporated in 
this book. 

Unfortunately so many of Scotty Smith's 
exploits and esc^ades have not been recorded 
and have now been irretiievably lost that it is a 
great pity that he never UTote his autobiography, 
especially as there is evidence that he fiiUy 
intended doing so. And it is a queer commentary 
on historical cause and effect that perhi^^s the 
chief reason which deterred him was his 
antagonism towards Cecil John Rhodes. 

It will be remembered that, not long before 
the overthrow of the Stellaland Goshen 
Republics, Scotty had been arrested on a charge 



of murder and had been thrown into jail. He 

blamed Rliodes for having instigated his airest 
and he never forgave him for the insult to his 
pride. This was not, of course, the only time tiiat 
Scotty had been imprisoned but he always bore 
these indignities with equanimity. Yet the one 
occasion on which he was unjustly ^prehended 
rankled with him for the rest of his life. 

Not that he ever gave this as the real reason 
for his hatred of Cecil Rhodes. On the contrary, 
he would wax indignant over the rape of the 
diamond fields and the unjust w^ in which the 
Free State had been treated by Great Britain. In 
spite of his undoubted loyalty, he believed that 
the little Boer Republic had been swindled and 
that the subsequent offer of the miserly sum of 
£90,000 as compensation, "in order to soothe 
bitter recollections," had merely added insult to 
injury. The diamond magnate, of course, had 
had nothing to do with all this, but Scotty could 
not forget that he had been the chief beneficiary 
of the annexation. 



"Although," he would remark to his friends," 
Rhodes had great talents, he was quite 
unprincipled. No one who believes that the end 
justifies the means can be a really great man. 
Now David Livingstone," and his eyes would 
light up. "Ah! There was someone whom you 
could really admiie and respect, because he 
always practised what he preached." 

During his retirement many people 
fq3proached Scotty with offers for permission to 
publish his reminiscences. He always refused. 
And although others did their best to induce 
"this priceless old relic of the past", as Col. B. 
C. Judd once described him, to write his 
autobiography, his antagonism to Rhodes 
proved the chief stumbling block. That this was 
so is also evident from the following letter 
which he wrote to his friend, George Beet» with 
whom he had kept up a sporadic correspon- 
detice ever since they had first met in the wild 
Stellaland-Goshen days of the early eighteen- 
eighties. 



In 1914 Beet, vvho wanted to compile an 

article about the outlaw, asked him whether he 
could publish his photogrt^h. Scotty's reply is 
illuminating. 

"Deal' Sir," he wiote, "You have my 
permission to use my photognqih and to 
use your own discretion as to what name 
you put under it. As far as reminiscences 
go, I made a start and gave the Rev. John 
Mackensie the credit of stopping the 
Boers from going west (not Rhodes) aiid 
had the Boers gone west at tliat time they 
would have formed a union with the 
Germans, and this Colony would only 
have extended as far as Griqvialand West 
if it existed at all. I also gave the Bros 
Fenton the credit for De Beers. A storm 
Avas raised and T gave it up. As T saw I was 
bound to touch someone on the raw. 



Yours faithfully, 
Geo St Leger Lennox 
Scotty Smith." 



Bom 22 November 1845 
not out 

Subsequently Scotty elaborated on this point 
to Thornton. He told him that he had actually 
sent the manuscript of his life stoiy to Sir Jaines 
Rose-Innes^ aftei"waids Chief Justice of the 
Union. Unfortunately it contained some rather 
scathing remarks about Rhodes and the 
publishers asked Scotty to delete or modify 
these. He refused to do this and, as neither side 
would give way, the book was returned to him 
and he threw it in the fire. 

Scotty's widow also confirmed that he had 
written an autobiogr^hy. After his death she 
proved just as allergic to journalists and writers 
as her husband had been. Many attempts were 
made to interview her, but although she was 
very loyal to Scotty's memory and extremely 
proud of him, she invariably refused to discuss 
his career. She did, however, state that he had 
originally written the stoiy of his life for the 
sake of his children. He had intended having 



this published in Holland posthumously, but 
had subsequently changed his mind and had 
destroyed the MS. 

Chapter Eighteen 

The Last Campaign 

During the 1914 - 1918 War, Scotty was 
one of the first to offer his services to the 
Union authorities, and he was given a job after 
his own heart. He was attached to the staff of 
Military Intelligence with the rank of Wairant 
Officer. He was allowed a fairly free hand and 
was not expected to conform to the ordinary 
regulations. This suited him admirably. 
Dressed in his serviceable desert uniform, an 
ancient pair of khaki slacks, a khaki shirt, and 
a slouch hat. he wandered about spying on the 
rebels and reporting; their movements and 
activities to headquarters. 

In spite of his age the old veteran was 
remarkably fit. Although his red beard had 

turned white, his back was as' stiff as a ramrod 
and he was still nimble and active. 



Notwithstanding, the hard, rough life he had 
led, his powers of endui ance were unimpaired 
and he was able to ride for hours at a stretch 
across the sandy desert wastes without 
exhibiting undue signs of exhaustion or 
fatigue. 

Soon after war bad been declared, some of 
the Boer leaders thought that theii^ chance had 
al last come to overthrow British rule in South- 
Africa, and so they broke into open rebellion. 

Among them were the Commandant-Genera!, 
Christian Beyers, and the famous gueirilla 
fighter. General Christian de Wet. 

In South West Africa the Germans had 

concentrated powerful bodies of men at Nakop 
and Ramans Drift. Avhi!e across the border at 
Upington and Kakamas large detachments of 
the Union Defence Force under the command 
of another Anglo-Boer Wai' hero, General 
Manie Maritz, had been assembled. In 
October, I9I4, there was a sensational 
development. General Maritz suddenly 
deserted to the enemy, taking with him a 



considerable of his men. This might have 
proved avery serious matter, but fortimately for 
the Union the rebels received very little support 
&om their fellow countrymen. Tlie rising had, 
however, to be suppressed before Botha could 
put into operation his plan to invade South West 
Africa. 

During this period of his military service, 
Scotty had his full share of adventures. One 
day, for example, he was out scouting, neai^ a 
small village which he knew to be occupied by 
the rebels when he saw a train of wagons in the 
distance. He rode up to investigate. As he drew 
nearer he noticed to his suiprise that there were 
no Boers in the immediate vicinity and that, 
although the wagons were loaded with 
captured ammunition and guns, for some 
unknown reason they were unguarded and 
unescorted. Making certain that it was not a 
trap Scotty approached and peremptorily 
ordered the African diivers in charge of the 
convoy to change direction. Then at gun point 



he forced them to take their wagons to the 
nearest British encampment. 

When he reached the camp the old man was 
feeling very proiul of hi^' swingle -handed achieve- 
ment. Dismounting, he told the sergeant on 
guard outside the commandant's tent that he 
wanted to see that officer immediately. 

The dapper, smartly dres&^ed non-commis- 
sioned officer stared at the dil^idated-looking 
old man in his desert-soiled unifonn and then 
rather contemptuously remarked, "The colonel's 
busy and. wont be able to see you. What d'ye 
want?" 

"Young man," Scotty growled, '''y^"'*^ better 
do as I tell you at once or it'll be the worse for 
you," 

There was something so menacing in his 
tone that in spite of himself the sergeant was 

compelled to obey, 

"Wait here," he gmmbled, as he reluctantly 
entered the tent. He returned a minute later with 
the message that Scotty was to remain outside 



until the commandant was ready to see him. 

This was too much for the old veteran. Pushing 
the sergeant roughly aside he walked into the 
tent and faced the irate officer. 

"Who the devil told you to come in here? 
Didn't I give orders diat . . .," the latter shouted. 

But Scotty cut him short. "Look, sir," he said. 

"Fve no time to waste. My business's important. 
I've captured a convoy of rebel wagons and guns 
audi want a receipt for them." 

The colonel went red in the face. "How daie 
you interrupt me with a cock-and-bull story like 
that?Don'tyouknown4ioIam?I'm Colonel" 

"And I," said Scotty impressively, "I'm Scotty 
Smidi." 

The change in tli e atni o spli ere was 
remarkable. The commandant had heaid agood 
deal about Scotty's ^ploits. He knew that he was 
very favourably regarded by some of the highest- 
ranking officers in the Union forces. He 
immediately altered his tone. And then, after 
examining the wagons and congratulating Scotty 



on his outstanding achievement in c^turing 
them, he gave him the necessary receipt without 
further delay. 

On another of his reconnoitring trips, Scotty's 
half-section h^pened to be a young soldier who 
was little more th»i five feet in height. Probably 
to compensate himself for his lack of inches, 
Shorty, as he was nicknamed, sported a huge pair 
of v^iskers. In addition he had all the couTRge in 
the world and was a deadly shot. Scotty, while 
greatly admiring his companion's good qualities, 
could not help being amused at his stiange 
appearance. 

One day they were out on patrol vdien they 
saw a band of rebels wiiich greatly outnumbered 
them. At the same moment the enemy caught 
sight of them and began fning. Scotty and Shorty 
immediately dived behind some boulders v\4iich 
effectively sheltered them from the fiisillade of 
bullets which the enemy let loose. 

Their position was, however, hopeless. It w^as 
just a matter of time before they would be 



outflanked and c^tured or killed. In the nick of 
time a small detachment of the Eighth Mounted 
Rifles attracted by the shooting, arrived on the 
scene. The enemy fled and their lives were 
saved. 

Staff Sergemit George Wilson, who is now 

living in retirement at Roodepooit. was with the 
relieving force. He told me that he looked at the 
queerly assorted pair, whom he had helped to 
rescue. Then he asked Scotty: "How many shots 
didyoufne?" 

"I didnt fiie at all," Scotty replied with a grin, 
"I was far too busy looking after Scotty Smith, 
and seeing that no harm came to him, but my 
fi'ieiid Shoity heie he fu'ed five shots, I believe, 
and it certainly looks as though he hit 
something." 

He pointed to where the rebels had been, and 
where some daik objects were now lying on the 
ground. They went down to investigate and 
found fjve bodies, a remarkable tribute to 
Shoity's accurate marksmanship. 



Tlie fact tliRl Scotty did not allow his sense of 

patriotism, and there was never any doubt of his 
fervent loyalty to the British cause, to clash with 
the opportunity of obtaining something for 
nothing from the military authorities is well 

illusti ated by the following two anecdotes, both 
of which were related to me by George Wilson. 

"I was orderly room sergeant for the Eighth 
Mounted Rifles," he told me, "and on one 
occasion we were camped on a hill outside 
Upinston. From my bedioom -office, a tent 
overlooking Scotty Smith's house, I could see he 
had a large lucerne patch attached to it. I noticed 
that there were always a few animals feeding 
there, but couldnt understand why they kept on 
changing. 

"One day there would be a couple of oxen in 
the field, the next d^ it would be a pair of 
hoi'fe'es. the following week half a dozen donkeys 
or mules and so on. This puzzled me. At the 
time, however, I had not yet met the redoubtable 
Scotty. Later on he paid me a visit and we 
became acquainted. I then ventured to ask him 



about the animals. I can recall the quizzical look 
he gave me. 

'"Well, sergeant,' he remai'ked with a broad 
grin, 'if the Government is incapable of looking 
afler its own property here's one man who can do 
the job for it' And I know for certain," Mr 
Wilson coiitiiuied, "that Scotty made a regulai^ 
practice of gathering in the spoils of war 
^^enever he had the chance. During our 
advance into South West Africa he was attached 
to the Eighth Mounted Rifles. When we were 
routed by the rebels under General Manie 
Maritz at Lutzputs he was particularly active. In 
the state of confusion which prevailed during 
our withdiawal he seized his opportunity and 
drove off hundreds of animals belonging to both 
sides. 

"When I subsequently spoke to him about it 
he was quite unrepentant. 

"My boy," he exclaimed gleefully, 'a man 
only eets a chance like that once in a lifetime- 
aiid I took it.'' During the campaign Scotty 



continued to serve with Military Intelligence. 

He was given the veiy t>^pe of as^signment 
which he himself would have chosen. This was 
to keep a watchful eye on the Germans along 
the Orange River border. He was now, of 
couM^e. working on his own ground. He also had 
valuable allies in the Hottentots and Bushmen, 
who acted as his spies and kept him fully 
cognisant of any German troop movements in 
the area. Scotty did his work well and he 
collected a great deal of valuable military 
information. 

One day some of his Hottentot followers 
came to him and suggested that they would be 

much more effective if they were mounted. 
Scotty thought so too, and he decided to take 
their request to Intelligence headquarters, vdiich 
were then situated tn the magistrate's house at 
Upington. At the same time he made up his 
mind that he could not let such a golden 
opportunity slip of doing some business on his 
own. His suggestion about mounting the 
Hottentots was favourably received by the 



authorities and it also speared quite natural 
that his offer to provide the necessary horses 
should also be accepted. 

"I know just where we can get the animals 
we require," he explained. "And at a reasonable 
price too - £30 each." 

Scotty set out and some time later he arrived 

hack with twenty fine horses which he drove 
into the kraal behind the magistrate's house. 
While he was doing this the men stood about 
admiring them. 

"What magnificent beasts," one of them 

remarked. Scotty, however, did not consider it 
necessary to inform his comrades-in-arms that he 
had drawn a special commission of £100 from 
the farmer for buying the animals from him. Nor 
for that matter did he mention the fact that for 
another £50 he had dropped a hint that the kraal 
gale might be carelessly left open so that the 
animals could return home, which is exactly 
wiiat did happen. Just before dawn someone 
slipped out and released the catch. Shortly 



afterwards one of tlie soldiers, passing tlie kraal, 
let out a startled yell. The men mslied out and 
found the gate wide open and the horses gone. 
Some of tliem were upset but Scotty was not 
perturbed. 

"Don't worry," he consoled them. "They cant 
have got very far, we'll soon have diem back." 

A mounted party led by Scotty followed the 
tracks. A few miles away they came upon the 
runaway steeds making steadily for home. Scotty 
had kept his word to the fanner all right. He had 

set the horses free. But he had quite forgotten to 
point out that they might be rec^tuied before 
they reached tbe fann! 

Scotty really knew the desert like the back of 
his hand and this proved most useful during the 
advance of General Botha's forces into South 
West Airica, George Wilson gave me a striking 
example of how accurate and precise Scotty's 
knowledge really was. One afternoon the colonel 
of the Eighth Mounted Rifles summoned him 



and, showing him a map, pointed to a tree 
marked on it. 

"Do yon know that tree?" he asked. "Yes, 
sir," Scotty replied. 

"Well," the Colonel continued, "I want to 
reach that point at seven tonight. What time must 
we leave here?" Scotty thought for a moment. 
''We*d better make it about five, sir," he 
suggested. They did this and at seven o'clock that 
evening they were under the tree. 

Scattered throughout South-Africa there aie 
still a number of men wdio have cause to thank 
Fate for Scotty's intimate acquaintance with 
desert life and conditions. One of these is 
Francois GreefF of Observatory in the Cfqje. 

Today Mr GreefTis a businessman and garage 
owner As a young man, however, he led a most 
adventurous life which took him to ail paits of 
the African continent. Francois Greeff knew 
Scotty well and it is to him that I am indebted for 
this interesting account of how the old outlaw's 
comprehensive knowledge of the desert and of 



the art of survival in the sandy wastes once saved 

the lives of a number of South -African soldiers 
during the first World War. In 1914 Mr Gieeff 
was living at Jansenville. Although only fifteen 
years old at the time i^en the rebellion broke 
out, he immediately joined up with the Twentieth 
Mounted Rifles (afterwaids known as Breyten- 
bach's Light Horse). Subsequently, as a member 
of this well-knouii regiment, he took pait in the 
invasion of South West Africa under General 
Botha, and this led directly to his first meeting 
with Scotty Smidi. 

The campaign took place in the middle of 
summer and as the men of the Mounted Rifles 
rode acro&^s the deseit sands the sun beat 
mercilessly down on them. Soon they were 
suffering intensely from the heat and before long 
the water caits had been emptied. To mal^e 
matters worse the commissariat department had 
broken down and there seemed to be no 
immediate prospect of obtaining fresh supplies. 

The position grew more and more ciitical. In 
order to spare their horses many of the riders 



dismounted and led them. Fortunately, however, 
they knew that they were neai' Lutzputs where 
there were wells of drinking w^er and this was 
the only thing that kept them going. 

Pushing on with all speed they reached the 
wells at last, only to fmd to their horror that one 
had dried up aiid that the other had been polluted 
by the enemy before retiring. Subsequently they 
discovered that a few days before, a fight had 
taken place there between the rebels and the 
Eighth Mounted Rifles, in which the latter had 
been defeated. After they had retreated, the 
enemy had collected the bodies of some of the 
men killed in the battle and had thrown them 
into the well before themselves withdrawing. 

By this time many of the advancing soldiers 
were in a state of colli^jse and a number of the 
horses were in an even worse plight. But 
although their throats were parched, the stench 
from the wells was so terrible that the animals 
refused to drink. Tlien one of the troopers had 
a brainwave. He smeared axle-grease up same 
of the horses' nostrils and in this way the 



animals were able to drink a little water and so 

gain some relief. This was at best a desperate 
remedy aud quite a few of the poor beasts 
actually died of thirst. As for the majority of 
the men, one look at the stagnant, putrid mess 
in the we!!, with pieces of Moated flesh 
floating about in it, was enough to make them 
violently sick. A few of the tougher or more 
desperate soldiers, however, aveiconiing their 
qualms, sieved the nauseous liquid and adding 
Condy's crystals managed in this way to 
swallow some of it before their stomachs 
revolted. 

At this stage the officer in chaise began 
sending out heliogrtq>h messages appealing 
urgently for help. 

"It was lucky for us," Francois Greeff told 
me, "that Scotty Smith happened to be in the, 
vicinity and that he was able to come to our 
assistance. He arrived about midnight, and we 
were at once told to fall in. With Scotty at our 
head and leading our horses, which were by 
this time much too weak to ride, we set out. 



Staggering and stumbling across the desert we 

made slow progress. Fortunately we hadn't 
very far to go. Scotty led us straight to the diy 
bed of the Molopo River. Then he quickly 
chose a spot and told us to dig. 

"We had no trench tools and so we sank to 

our knees and began excavating a fairly large 
hole with our hands. The men formed a line 
and the sand stuffed in nose-bags was passed 
along this to the surface. Luckily for us the 
ground was soft. Before long we had gone 
down more than a dozen feet. Suddenly one of 
the men let out a hoarse yell. In a parched, 
croaking voice he shouted, Water, boys! Water.' 

"TTiere, seeping through the smooth, round, 
river stones was a thin trickle of cleai% fresh 
water. Before beginning to dig, the soldiers had 
been given instructions to short-halter their 
horses and extra men had been detailed to guaid 
them. It was a good thing that this precaution had 
been taken, because as soon as the animals smelt 
the life-saving liquid they nearly went mad with 



excitement. Tliey would undoubtedly hsve 
stampeded" 

Then, true to the highest traditions of a crack 
Imperial cavalry regiment, these irregular 
volunteer Union troops looked after the needs of 
their horses first before relieving their own thirst. 
Each horse was given a qiiaiter of a nosebag of 
water to drink. Only after this had been done did 
the men attend to their own urgent requirements. 

Scotty Smith had a complex nature and 
certainly one that was very different from that of 

most other people. Although he frequently talked 
about his many misdeeds, he never once 
mentioned the most distinguished performance 
of his \^ole militaiy career. TTiis was an epi&^ode 
for which he would have received the greatest 
public credit had it been publicised; yet he was 
strangely secretive about it. If it had not been for 
tlie fact that another man was with him when it 
h^pened, the ^^4iole affair would have remained 
unknown. The other man was Clement Handley 
and the stoiy is the strange one of how Scotty 
actually saved the Union's first Prime Minister, 



General Louis Botha, from ignominious c^ture 
or possible death at the hands of the Germans. 

The event took place during the advance of 
the Union forces into South West Africa. Some 
miles aliead of the main maiching column and 
spread out on either side of it were a number of 
specially chosen men. whose duty it was to keep 
a watch for Geiinan troops and prevent them 
from making a surprise attack. Two of the best 
and most expmenced of these scouts were 
Clement Hmdley and Scotty Smith. 

Scottj'. through his friendship with the 
Bushmen and Hottentots, had developed a very 
fine intelligence service of his own. Little that 
happened in the desert esc^q^ed tlie notice of 
these wandering nomads and they kept Scotty 
well infoiined of any Gennan manoeuvi es which 
came to their notice. 

As the South-Afiican force advanced slowly 

through the deseit towai'ds Wiiidlioek, General 
Botha developed the dangeioufe' habit of riding 
fai^ aliead of his troops. Accompanied only by a 



hand&l of ofEicers and quite unprotected, he 

would often put some miles between himself and 
the main body of his soldiers. This rash action 
gave his staff many anxious moments, but they 
could not induce him to adopt more satisfactory 
security measures. All they could do was to 
instruct the scouts to take extra precautions to 
ensure his safety. 

For a time all went well. Then one d^ a 
Hottentot runner came post-haste into the camp 
with disquieting news. He reported to Scotty that 
Geniian spies had informed the German High 
Command of Botha's foolhardy practice and that 
a lightning raid was being planned to c^ture 
him. 

After this Scotty decided to make Lotiis 
Botha's safety his own particular care. He 
therefore dropped all other assignments and 
concentrated on keeping a vigilant eye on the 
General. With this aim in view he formed an 
unseen but special bodyguard to protect General 
Botha, This bodyguai'd consisted of himself, 
Handley and eight selected Hottentot soldiers. 



Day aft:er day these ten men threw an invisible, 
protective screen roimd their chai'ge. It was a 
difficult task as Botha had to be kept in complete 
ignorance of their presence. They remained just 
out of his sight and yet close enough to maintain 
a constant watch. 

For weeks nothing happened and it looked as 
though the Germans had revised their plans. In 
fact it was not until the column was nearing 
Windhoek that the expected development took 
place and Scotty's vigilance was rewarded. 
Towards sunset one aitemoon General Botha and 
his advance party were, as usual, a few miles 
ahead of the main body of troops. They decided 
to halt ajid wait for their men to catch up. They 
dismounted and sat do\ra on the sand to rest. 

Scotty was idly watchmg them when 
suddenly out of the comer of his eye something 
attiacted his attention. Immediately he swimg 
round and, gripping Handley by the arm, he 
pointed. In the far distance a line of small dots 
had speared. Scotty instantly recognised them 
as horsemen riding in an encircling movement to 



enfilade the General and his staff. It was obvious 

that they had cho&'en their approach cai'efiilly. 
They were coming from the west so that their 
victims would have the sun in their eyes and 
would not easily see them. 

Prompt action had to be taken if disaster were 

to be averted. Botha and his men were too far 
away to warn, and their fate now lay in Scotty's 
hands. 

"Unless we do something, and do it pretty 
damn quickly," he muttered, "they'll take him by 
surprise." He baiked a command and his men 
instantly obeyed. Silently and swiftly he led 
them round in awide sweep towards the strategic 
point he had chosen, in the path of the advancing 
Gemiaii force. When they reached it they hid 
their horses behind a small hillock and left them 
in charge of one of the Hottentots. Dropping to 
the ground and spreading out, they climbed a 
sand dune, still unobserved by the enemy. Then 
Scotty sniped another order. ^'When I give the 
signal," he commanded, "let them have it." 



Tensed up, with their guns ready, they waited. 
Suddenly, not a hundred yards away, the head of 
the Geiinan column appeared. 

"Fire," Scotty yelled. Nine shots rang out 
simultaneously. Then his men continued 
shooting as quickly as they could reload and pull 
the trigger. A dozen Gemiaiis were shot from 
their saddles. The rest, thinking that they were 
being attacked by the advance guard and that the 
remainder of the force was close behind, turned 
and fled. The General and his staff heaid the 
fning but they never knew how close they had 
come to being captured that evening. Not many 
men would have remained quiet after 
peifbnning such a signal seivice to the Union's 
wai' effort. Nor did the Prime Mmister ever 
know that the old free booter, c^le lifler and 
horse thief had saved him from being taken 
prisoner in this dramatic way. In fact, if 
Handley had not, fortunately for posterity, 
placed on record his own account of this 
incident, it would have remained just another 



lost story in the life history of South-Afiica's 
inost remarkable outlaw. 

Chapter Nineteen 

The End Of The Trail 

The Year 1919 Was A Black One for Scotty's 
admirers throughout South -Africa. In that year 
the old veteran contiacted 'flu and at last reached 
the end of the trail. But even in death Scotty out- 
witted his enemies, many of whom had confi- 
dently predicted that he would die with his boots 
on. Instead he passed away peacefully in bed. 

During his last illness Scotty had no idea that 
his d^s were numbered. "When I saw him," Mrs 
Schutz, who visited him frequently at this^ time, 
informed me, "he thought he would be up and 
about in a couple of days. He did not look so 
very ill to me at all, but it must have been his age 
... I'll never forget him lying on the bed. He was 
fully dressed and was reclining on a torn 
mattress, covered with blankets. Everything, 
however, was spotlessly clean. 



"I had no idea he was dying: He refiised to 
give in and remained cheeifiil and bright. Every 
now and then a faint smile would cross his lips 
as he reflected on the fiill life \^ich he had led 
Gradually, however, he grew weaker and weaker 
and at last I could see that he was a desperately 
sick man. But he still kept his spirits up, 
although just before the end he mustVe realised 
that his time had come, bec^uise he sent a 
Bushman to call his fiiend, the priest, to bid him 
farewell. He was, however, denied this fmal 
solace and comfort and I was the unwitting cause 
of it. 

"I kept a couple of dachshunds at the mission 
station. The boy was afi aid of them and so failed 
to call Father until it was too late. When he at 
last received the message he hurried to the 
bedside of his friend. But by then it was all over 
and Scotty was no longer in need of human 
sympathy or comfort." 

It was ^^propi iate that, like so much of his 
own life, the day Scotty died was an extremely 
stormy one. The thunder crashed, the lightning 



struck and the heavens were illuminated. Perh^s 

nature could have paid no finer tribute to the 
iinale of the old outlaw's long and tempestuous 
career. 

Scotty Smith was buried in the Upington 
cemetery and a simple metal plaque was erected 

over his grave. It read: "George St Leger Gordon 
Lennox. Gone but not forgotten. Never will his 
memory fade. Wife and children." This plain 
inscription has proved strangely prophetic. 
Whatever position Scotty is ultimately destined 
to occupy in the history of South-Africa, one 
thing is certain; although more than a century 
has passed since his birth, his memory has not 
fadetl. The faces of old-timers who knew him 
peisonally still liglit vip when his name is 
mentioned and they recall his many and varied 
exploits. 

The trnth is that, like most of us, Scott>''s 
nature was a mixture of good and evil. In his 
case both these elements ^peaied in a greatly 
exaggerated form. In one of his letters to me, 
M^or Anderson sums him up especially well. 



"I would like to stress," he wrote, "that Scotty 

was a well-educated man, with a cleai' brain, a 
magnificent stamina (he was neaily seventy 
years old when we went on our trip together), 
and a keen sense of sarcastic humour. He 
certainly was not a criminal in the usual meaning 
of the term, although he broke the law on 
numerous occasions. If he had remained in the 
Army, and his regiment had been engaged on 
continual active service, George St Leger 
Gordon Lennox would undoubtedly have made 
an honoured name for himself. 

"That Scotty fiilly ^preciated his own 
position was made cleai^ to me one night ^^en 
we were sitting at the camp fire sipping our 
cocoa before turning into our blankets, which 
were already spread out on the soft, desert sands. 

" 'My only trouble," he told me, "has been 
that I was bom two hundred years too late. ' 

"How do you make thai out?' I asked 

He then said, 'My great weakness is, if I see a 
bunch of good cattle I want to annex them. In 



modem times this is looked upon as stealing and 

calls for police inteivention, which may lead to 
imprisonment without the option of a fine.' 

"To this I replied, 'Quite so.' 

"He then continued. Tavo hundred years ago 
annexing other people's cattle was known as 
rieving. A successfiil riever was a highly 
honoured membei' of his family gioup, and if the 
cattle had been rieved £^om south of the Scottish 
border the riever was acclaimed as a Scottish 
hero. You see my point.' 

"I assured him that I fiiUy ^ipreciated his 

argument." Mr George Beet, who knew Scotty 
for a longer period than most people, aiso once 
discussed this subject. In an article on the 
famous outlaw, which tq^peared in the Cape 
Ai^us of 11th September 1926, he wrote: 

"To my mind, Scotty was a bit of an 
anachronism, a reversion to type. He came of 
good old Scottish Border stock, and no doubt the 
more primitive instincts were derived from his 
hard-living, hard-iighting, cattle -lifting ances- 



tors, and had inevitably to gravitate to the 
surface, ^latsoever the consequences. 

"The love of adventure and freedom was 
dominant in him, and he felt compelled to obey 
and observe the primal law and custom of the 
wilderness in which, to him and his kind, the 
restraints of civili&'ation are ever irk&'ome and 
occasionally impossible. He was no better and no 
worse than many another and more illustrious 
and successf;il adventurer in our colonial history; 
one who had to rely on his wits to make a virtue 
of necessity in those great wastelands of Empir e 
where nine-tenths of the conventions of law and 
order were apt to be openly resented and as 
openly flouted. 'Scotty' lived as he pleased to live 
and died a free mail." 

Actually the enigma of Scotty Smith, of his 
dual personality and his Jekyll-and-Hyde exis- 
tence, is no enigma at all. It is a tragedy rather; 
the tragedy of a man endowed with very special 
talents, vdiich in a different age and under other 
circumstances might have brought him ever- 
lasting fame and fortune. 



Had he, for example, been fated to live in the 
roistering days of the early eighteenth ceiituiy, 
he might have emulated the romantic deeds of 
his fellow countryman, champion cattle-lifler 
and national hero Rob Roy; or had destiny 
decreed that he should have followed in the 
footsteps of Robert Clive in India, his body 
might have found an honoured resting-place 
among the British dead in Westminster Abbey, 
instead of in a humble country grave on the 
banks of the Orange River. 



Index 



The index below is as it was in the onginal p^cr book but in this e-book the page numbers have all 
changed and have theiefoi e been removed. Otlieiwise the original index is left unchanged to display the 
authors choice and readers should use theii' program's search facility to locate the item. 



A 1 T 

Abrams, Loo 


Celliers, S. P. 


Eadie, W. K. 


A 1 ' 

Am alia 


Childs, Sgt 


Fmcnam, E. A. 


Andersen, M^or C. A. 


Coetzee, Jan 


Fourie's Graf 


Areacu^ 


Coope, Major Jesser 


Frankiurt 


Beet, A. 


ComfoTth Hill 


Galishwe 


Beet, G. 


Cowan, D. 


Gasibone 


Bergh, G. 


Cronje, Com. P. A. 


Gerber, Mrs E. 


Beigh, G. J. 


Daly, C. 


Gericke 


Bergn, 0. 


De 


Geyer, H. C. 


Bleek, D. 


De la Rey, Gioot Adnaan 


Ghansi 


TN 1 1 -T-y Tir TT T 

Bleek, Dr W. H. L 


In T T 

De laRey, Lang Jan 


Gibson, A. 


Borchards, Dr W. M. 


De ViUiers, Piet 


Gibson, F. 


Botha, Gen. Louis 


Dennison, C^t. C. G. 


Gibson's Red Star Line 


Bouwer, C^t. G. 


Dieivedraai 


Goodchild 


Bouwer, Oom Frikkie 


Draghoeuder 


Greeff, F. 


Brooke, G. 


Drotsky 


Grootdrink. 


Brown 


Du Toit. S. J. 


Gnindligh D. 


Buchheimer^ F. 


Dumbrell, H. J. E. 


Haiidley, C 


Burke, J. H. 


Eadie, D. 


Herbst, Major 



Hennan, G. 


Lorrimer, Sst. 


Perineuey, Dr. C 


Hennaii, M. 


Lutsputs 


Philander Dirk 


Honey J. W. 


Mackensie, Rev J 


Pokwani 


Hope, J 


Mamusa 


Preller, A. O. 


Hopetown 


Mankoroane 


Preller, J. 


Howard 


Man the 


Priest, Roman Catholic 


Inggs, C. F. 


Marais, P 


Pudimoe 


Jackson, A. 


Marengo 


Reitz, Chief Justice 


Jacobs, Wilde 


Mai itz, Manie 


Rhodes, C. 


Jetty, One-aimed 


Maitin, H. 


Rietfontein 


Judd, Col. B. C. 


Mas sou w 


Rietpan 


Kemp, S. 


Maiin 


Ritchie 


Kitchener, Lord 


Melville, One-armed 


Rooi Groiid 


Klein, H. 


Mick and Mays 


Saunders 


Koch 


Middlepost 


Schutz 


Kromdraai 


Montsioa 


S chub a 


Kunana 


Moshette 


Seven Pans 


Leigh, Sgt. A. G. 


Muller, R 


Shorty 


Leitland's Pan 


Nakop 


St. Quintin, Sgt. 


Lennox, Gordon, Mrs 


Niekerk&mst 


St. Quintin, C. P. 


Lennox. Gordon, Snr. 


Okavainbo Swain ps 


Stem, W. 


Leutwein, Major. 


O liph antsfonte in 


Steyn,H 


Lieutenant's Pan, See Leitland 


O'Reilly, J 


Stumke 


'sPan 


Pabst, Rev. H 


Swaitm odder 



Taylor, Col. W, H, C. 
Til 0111 p s on , M at ab ele, 
Tlionitoii, R. W. 
Tylden, Major G., 
Van Niekerk, G., 
Van Pitting. N. G. 
Van Rooyen, I. M. 
Van Rooyen, S. J. 
Von Francois, Major K. 
Von Liiidequist 
Von Trotha, Gen. 
Ward, Snowy 
Waixen, SirC. 
Weil, S. 
Welford, G. 
Wilman, Miss M. 
Wilson, Sgt. G. 
Wilbooi 
Witdraai 
Witpooitjie 
Woods 

Woon, Col. E. W. 
Zeederburg Coaching Service 
Zeerust